ideas

Let’s face it, everybody uses Yelp and the handiness of social reviews has saved the day in looking for that cafe or Mexican restaurant in just the location you want. Yelp’s got it nailed so what’s the point in innovating in location based business lookups? Well, here’s a thought, social reviews have been so widely used that the quality of the reviews and ranking has caused an “averaging out of tastes” to what the typical American likes and wants. Isn’t that point, to know the venue you’re about to go to is the very best based on what everybody thinks? I’ve started having my doubts. You see, since moving back from Japan last month, I’ve used Yelp a number of times for every little thing (food to futon shop) and have found I’m not an average American anymore nor do I want to be one. My likes are mine and crave things outside the mainstream. And this is where an Anti-Yelp could come in, an online, location based service that captures a variety of tastes NOT the status quo. Where social appears to identify the most popular, what about the unpopular BUT unique that matches. I’m not thinking going back to Zagats’ expert reviews is the answer either but some new technology that “learns” about you, finds others with similar tastes and provides suggestions that are the right fit. And then there’s the issue of Yelp needing time to recognize a venue based on volume of rankings and reviews which leaves out new and unusual businesses that are fun to discover. So the Anti-Yelp needs to focus on freshness of venues to make discovering that cool hole-in-the-wall possible, adding currency to your social status. I don’t mean to bash something as useful as Yelp. But I think it’s time for some competitive innovation in the space. - Lance