Yelp announced that it has surpassed 13 million reviews. I wonder how many of them are positive. In a post on the company blog, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman writes:
Last week, Yelp passed the 13 million review mark — and it’s no secret that because our community is sharing all these great reviews, that Yelp has become the best place to find a local business. But did you know that Yelp is also a resource to help you find “dog-friendly” B&Bs, campgrounds with the “best view,” even beaches that have “great waves”?
Because we have millions of reviews and counting, that means we have a massive wealth of content that can provide a rich snapshot of, well, anything. Not just businesses. For example, if you do a search for “best views” in San Francisco, guess what comes up? Reviews for Land’s End Park, Corona Heights Park, California Coastal Trail and much more.
Yelp may miss a great amount of exposure going forward, however. Google has apparently stopped showing Yelp results on its Place Pages.
The two companies had something of a beef over Google showing Yelp content on these pages in the past. The two companies discussed this publicly at a TechCrunch event.
It was never quite clear to me why Yelp would rather not have that search visibility, while their competitors reap the benefits of their absence, but the company apparently got what it wanted. It will be interesting to see if the next 13 million reviews come as quickly as the last.