Articles tagged “yelp”

Yelp's adding tours and activities' bookings highlights the mainstreaming of the sector but the way Yelp is doing this is modest and not a game-changer. Yelp hasn't acquired a tours and activities provider and isn't putting a lot of resources into in-app bookings, both of which rival TripAdvisor has done.

Google was adamant that it needed to compete in local search and it didn't mind playing hardball with Yelp, TripAdvisor, CitySearch, and others to get its way.

Google dodged a bullet in 2013 when the FTC terminated its antitrust probe without forcing meaningful concessions or filing suit. Now we know that the rank and file within the FTC wanted to fight it out with Google in court.

Yelp has been fighting Google for years and looks to mobile and TV advertising as two ways to reduce the company's reliance on Google traffic.

Getting more aggressive in hotels is a natural fit for Yelp, although it remains to be seen how far Yelp intends to take it.

Video is powerful, and now users of Yelp's iPhone app have some additional user-generated ammunition. Nice move by Yelp.

Kudos to the European Union for ensuring that Google doesn't wield its market power with excessive advantage in promoting its own services. The U.S. FTC's decision to avoid taking similar actions is a regulatory blemish, although the EU agreement could put more pressure on the FTC to take another look at these issues.

Many reputation management firms have made a living out of criticizing Yelp and TripAdvisor, and some of them have crossed the line and gotten into the fake-review writing business themselves. There are reputation management firms with integrity out there, but these 19 companies are not among them.

Lists like this are always about buzz rather than reality, so watchers will have to wait until these six reach their forties to see if they can turn their young-ish companies into established players.

Is TripAdvisor playing around with all of these products surrounding its hotel advertising business, or is the company becoming an all-purpose travel site? We suspect the latter.