The Folly of Yelp

A frat bro of mine recently tweeted:

"I hate yelp...fuck I hate yelp...I hate the people on yelp...bunch of hipster youngins who don't kno much about nething but have an opinion"

Of course just like the vast majority of published opinions online it is only a rant, and really a rant should not be taken literally. Rants usually come out of frustration at the spur of the moment. Initially Yelp started out as a restaurant/business guide where everyday people critique the establishment. Its appeal was a response to stuffy know-it-all journalists who appear not to know what they are talking about. After all this is your neighbor, your trusted friend who told you about your favorite restaurant, who convinced you to give this breakfast diner a chance, and you thanked them for it. It had something going in its inception but all of a sudden it blew up. Everybody started signing up for it. The designer added social networking capabilities to the site. The smartphone Yelp app surfaced enabling you to check in to the spot. Yelp became mainstream, and with the bandwagon getting built, the reviews from your close trusted friend became a rant from a 15 year old grade school flunkie.

This is why I can't really trust Yelp anymore. There will be a couple legit reviews, and then there will be one reviewer that had a bad experience with the waitress and decides to base their review on that, and then there will be the other reviewer who will give the 1 star crucifixion off the one dish that is overly repulsive than it actually is. At least journalists are conscious of their bias. There was one yelp review that focussed more on her relationship with someone else rather than the restaurant itself. Finally there are those yelpers that may be hired by the said establishment who give 1 star to the rival restaurant while giving 5 to another. By this time, it just appears that yelp is a better directory for establishments than a reputed guide for restaurants. At this point, the appeal of reviews from everyday people gets worn leaving people like me to rely on friends on what is the spot.