Yelp is a social networking, user review, and local search website. Over 10.6 million people access Yelp’s website each month, putting it in the top 100 of US Internet websites.
Yelp provides online local search capabilities for its visitors. A typical search includes what the user is seeking (i.e. product or service offerings) and the location from which the search is to be performed, entered as a specific address, neighborhood, city/state combination, or zip code. Each business listing result contains a five-star rating, reviews from other site visitors, and details such as the business address, hours, accessibility, and parking.
Yelp combines local reviews and social networking functionality to create a local online community. Adding social web functionality to user reviews creates a de-facto reputation system, whereby site visitors can see which contributing users are the most popular, respected, and prolific, how long each has been a member, and which have interests similar to their own.
Strong peer feedback mechanisms and the featured placement of popular reviews on the site and in local newsletters help motivate contributors. Yelp also applies a “First to Review” reward system to create a competition among contributing members, further motivating the creation of reviews and adding to the site’s business coverage.
