How Many Reviewers Should Be in the Kitchen? - Yelp vs. Zagat | Hacker News Reader

How Many Reviewers Should Be in the Kitchen? - Yelp vs. Zagat

nytimes.com

16 pointsrobg13 comments

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You can add to this the fact that Google is also in the mix.

e.g. http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&...

Personally I like Yelp better, but I've only really been looking in SF (which is their strongest card).

Google seems to link to TripAdvisor reviews in most cases

I tend to get a whole assortment - might be very location/type dependent.

I find Yelp's UI to be much more friendly. Also, their free iPhone app is awesome -- coffee near me is the secret sauce. I use Yelp heavily around Stanford.

It's pretty clear to me that Yelp-like sites are the future of (this type of) food review online, especially since Zagat is charging.

Playing off the network effect for a user generated content site seems key, and charging a subscription certainly doesn't help with that. Traffic stats and restaurant coverage mentioned in the article bear this out.

As a user:

I use Yelp quite a bit... but I don't really trust their rating system since I heard a while back that they pay a lot of their reviewers or "marketing associates". I've often found myself disagreeing with their ratings.

I used Zagats almost exclusively during my corporate days. Reviews seemed pretty trustworthy but the whole annual publishing thing was way too slow.

As a business:

I've heard from classmates of a Zagat family member that the company does pretty well financially. From what I remember, all my consulting/banking friends got a Zagats membership as a company perk, which helped build brand loyalty and probably generated dependable cash flow.

On the other hand, I've heard from media reports that Yelp doesn't generate a lot of cash (they've taken 4 rounds of VC financing). I guess they're waiting for the big exit for their great traffic growth.

The problem with Yelp is that the reviewers are all a bunch of nouveau riche twentysomethings who only care about the ambiance, not the food. Most of the reviews are about how cool the reviewer is, and not the restaurant itself. I'll take Zagats any day.

In Chicago, I've become wary of trusting much on Yelp. I've been checking out touristy stuff lately and had some really lousy experiences. Inevitably, when I check to see what the yelpers think, they rave and 5-star it.

Don't do the touristy stuff in Chicago.

As an aside, I've found that Yelp rarely helps me decide on a restaurant. Sometimes Yelp says a place is bad, and I love it. Sometimes it says it's great, and I hate it. Sometimes we agree, but basically I can't trust it. People that aren't professional reviewers don't really know how to review a place ("1 star because I don't like cheese, but ordered a cheese pizza." People on Amazon do this too -- "I didn't like jrockway's book because it didn't cover something I wanted it to." That is a wish, not a review.)

I'm checking off the things I want to make sure I do while I'm here. I agree, touristy stuff's usually lame, but you gotta go to the Sears Tower, right?

The view is nice, but I hate how touristy it is. They make you watch this dumb movie about how great Chicago is before you can take the elevator upstairs.

I like the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building ("tocho") in Tokyo (obviously). You walk into the lobby and press the "up" button on the elevator. Then you press the button for 90-whatever, wait a while, and get off at the top. Then you enjoy the view. (And it's free, of course.)

All the more reason to post your own review of places you've been. Don't just be a consumer, man. The most powerful review sites let you find out about the people providing reviews, so it is easy to determine if you should trust a specific reviewer or not (if they like the things you like, or if they review only certain kinds of places, or if they say they don't like cheese but still order it everytime).

If someone bought your book because something about it gave the impression that it would contain certain information and it didn't, then I think that's a legit reason to not like it. However, I agree, the simple review you've pointed out isn't adequate. It would be nice to know why the person thought the book would cover what they thought was missing.

My little pet theory, based on the 10/20/70 rule, is that the individual reviews themselves become less important. The 70% of yelp users will only want 2 type of information: what's the star rating of a place and how expensive/category it is.

And for the late nighters: credit card and delivery.

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