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I've chatted a little bit about Yelp.com in the past, but a recent article in San Francisco magazine really brought a lot of things home. While I'm not a tremendous fan of SF Mag, this article was quite good and a read I would recommend. Basically, the author asks, what is the future of Yelp? The site works somewhat well in San Francisco, but expansion is a problem. I would posit that the problem lies in the fact that the only other annoying hipster population of any merit lies in New York City and that is a territory heavily covered in all things hipster-related, Vice being one of the more amusing ones. So, expanding a lot in NYC is a heavy fight, while any other city doesn't have much of a market worth pursuing. San Francisco happened to be the best mix of everything and they're pretty much the kings here.       But the fact is that Yelp is probably doomed to failure or a buyout. The site is just too cool for school and has no generic merit to it that allows it to spread beyond the "in" crowd of any particular city. It's part of the reason that while I review on it from time to time, it's gotten to be only useful to me as an online 411 directory. Even if an establishment doesn't have a website in SF, they will probably be listed on Yelp. Beyond that, the reviews are nearly worthless to me, unless of course some place gets insanely good reviews all the time, then I know I should stay away as it will be thronged by hipster masses constantly.       I mean, yeah, we get it, Tartine is great. The 1,000 reviews that are there for it are kinda redundant at this point. But that's the problem. To get in to the crowd, you need to review and to be welcomed by the crowd, you need to love what they love and hate what they hate. Step out of line and the "Yelp Elite" will not welcome you unless of course you can out-drink them and I gotta warn everything that there are some severe fishes in that group.       One last point that I've mentioned in passing to people and the author of the SF Mag article picked up is that it seems like a Google buyout would make a lot of sense. Once I saw that Google had put ratings on its business listings, it seemed like a perfect fit. That and the fact that Yelp's revenue comes from premium placements for business (which several owners have told me are a waste of money) and advertisements, which Google does splendidly. What Yelp could do for Google's ratings system could be what YouTube did for Google Video. I'm sure they wouldn't change anything about the front end of Yelp so that they keep the community that drools over it in place, while at the same time, they'd take the backend and make it all Google, hopefully fixing Yelp's very sporadic image server in the process. After all, Yelp's search system sucks to the core and I always use 'blah blah restaurant site:yelp.com' searches on Google to actually find what I'm looking for, so the fit would be more brilliant than a shotgun with a silencer

I use Yelp. I like Yelp. I contribute to Yelp. Yelp is there when I need to find a business without a site. Yelp is useful. Yelp also has problems.       I think my biggest problem with the site is how it has fallen in to the age-old problem of cliques. When it first started, it seemed wide open. You were there with these other people in a growing community and each new member was welcomed. Then something happened. There was a critical mass that was reached and all of the sudden the site seemed immense and unapproachable for me. And it's not like I'm some newbie to the whole thing. I've been using it since November of 2005 (as you can see on my profile) and I'm even one of the "Elite" with "Friends". Yet even still, the site doesn't seem as tight as it once was and I blame this on the cliques. It is well-known to many that there is this very tight circle of people within the site who are what I call, Yelpores. Obviously just writing these words opens me up to a torrent of anger if this group finds this blogging.       The Yelpores go to every single Yelp event. And I do not exaggerate. I have gone to a few to find that while initially people are somewhat open, you quickly realize that it feels like you're in San Jose and no one really wants to meet new people. Be your "friend" on the site? Sure, but they have their crew and they're sticking to them at every. Single. Event. It's this group that kinda closes off Yelp to everyone else because you can feel this inner circle and the fact you won't be part of it. It's just like High School basically and that's the irony in this, is that I would bet a lot of these people are the ones who hated the cliques in High School because they weren't part of them.       The Yelp staff actually seems to encourage a lot of this. I've known a few of them because I used to do contract work at a Sometimes Office they shared space with. They're good folks and a lot of fun, but once they put up their Store section in a way that apes American Apparel naughtiness, I saw that they're in to their inner circle. The girls in these made up scenes are girls from the site. While tasty ladies, they are the ones who go to every single event. Wanna meet 'em? Get a job at Yelp.       Beyond this though, which is generally inevitable (although not really on Craigslist for some reason...) another thing that drives me nuts are the Friendists. They are this group that must have fled Friendster or something and are now on Yelp. Their main drive in the world seems to be getting as many friends as they possibly can. You'll notice that their friend count will far outstrip their review count. What they're getting out of the site, I don't know, since these people really aren't "friends". Will they loan you their car? No. Will they help you move? Doubt it. But, due to the number of reviews I've submitted, I seem to get contacted by them on occasion and it's just weird. Do I turn down their offer of "friendship"? No, because I really don't care, but maybe I should and do my part in stopping this perverse OCD-esque behavior.       My other major gripe with the site is the search. I understand that they've got to make money or this little fun site won't be around for very long. They just need to learn from Google in that you don't screw with the search. Maybe they aren't messing with the results and giving higher placement to paying advertisers, but it sure feels like that. If I don't know the exact name of what I'm looking for on there, then I'm most likely not going to find it. Although I'll be "helped out" by friendly suggestions of other places I might want, but really don't. It's gotten to a point where I just use the site search function on Google. You know what I'm talking about? Say you wanted to find yelp mentions on this site, you'd type in 'yelp site:hudin.com' in to Google. Searching like this works a lot better than the Yelp search.       One last thing that is irksome is that if I find a place in say Berkeley on Yelp, then the next time I come back, my primary location has been set to Berkeley. This I do not want since 99% of my searches are in San Francisco. Once again, it's an example of the search function not really working in a way that seems intuitive.       So, anyways, just a few of my gripes. I'm not going to stop using the system, I just wanted to put that out and see if there are others that agree with me, especially on the Yelpore bit.

I use the Yelp a bit. You can see a link to my profile there on the left. It's the thing that says, "jebus". Yeah, that's the one. You can see all 132 reviews I've written there, but in short, I'd like to sum up a few of my favorites. Is this a little conceited? Sure, but here we go:       El Farlito       Nan King Road Bistro       Best of the Bay Party       San Francisco       Fenton's Creamery       Yelp       Cav Wine Bar       Bargain Bank       So, you kinda gotta look for my little icon there below the location info when you click on the links, but that's where the business is. Oh yeah, one last great one would be my tales of Ruby Skye. Join and give me some props if you'd like. You can even add me as a friend because we just can't have enough friends.

On Yelp you submit reviews and you speak your mind. You 'yelp' essentially, thus the name. Clever, no? Yes, it is and what is great is that there are a few of us that hit a threshold of reviews most don't get to and that is the 100 mark.       I am very proud to announce that I have reached this mark. I wasn't aware of it, but when you hit this mark, you get use of the Yelp Timeshare in Sherman Oaks. Yeah, I know, I didn't believe it either. Sherman Oaks. I never thought I'd make it. At 500 reviews, you get a hug from an actual Yelp staff member of your chosing and a friendly lick from Darwin, the Yelp mascot. If you're ever to hit 1,000 reviews, you become one with Yelp and join their board of directors. It's all just so incredible, it's hard to believe!       Of course, this is all crap and you just earn the respect of your peers. You can read my pile o' reviews at jebus.yelp.com and you can read all about my favorite Yelp item, the Yelp T-Shirt.