Loopt launches its iPhone app with a surprise partner: Yelp

Wow, a Yelp app is kindof a killer app for the iPhone, in my opinion.

Imagine walking into a restaurant and being shown reviews of the place, the drink selection and food recommendations. And being able to filter these by friends? And being prompted to rate your experience as you leave the place?

Wow. Such a simple idea, but such a killer one. Something like this might actually make me actually switch to AT&T. Haha.

It's a little amusing that Loopt pulled off a better Yelp application than Yelp itself.

Yelp promised tons of cool location-aware features for their iPhone app, but what they released today is little more than Yelp Mobile. Terrible usability and lack of new features.

I'd say that Loopt, on the other hand, is the best app released today. I'm very impressed at what they're doing. And Yelp integration is just icing on the cake.

IMHO, there is very little surprise, rather I would be surprised if Loopt & Yelp didn't partner up.

The combination of LBS + local information review is very popular, highly actionable and monetizable -- you can call it a trifecta or the holy trinity.