Who can compete with Yelp and new cash? AT&T tries for some Buzz

While Yelp is busy raising more cash, AT&T is preparing to launch a competing service called Buzz.com (it’s currently in private beta). The site aims to help users find the “best places to go or businesses to call,” and it will be a companion with AT&T’s existing YellowPages.com site. (Or will it be a [...]

Yelp.com now shows check-ins on reviews

A few days ago, Yelp rolled out a new version of its iPhone app that includes the ability to check-in at local businesses, much like Foursquare.

And now Yelp has connected some of that functionality online. Next to a user’s review of a particular business on Yelp.com, you can see how many times that user [...]

Yelp adds check-ins on mobile app

Many location-aware social apps, like Foursquare and Brightkite, offer the ability to “check in” to a location. And now Yelp, which has a much larger community than all the location-aware apps before it (1.25 million people used the Yelp app last month), has added its own check-in feature with a brand new update.

When you [...]

Yelp traffic grew 60 percent last year

If you wonder why Google (and likely a few other big companies) have been talking to Yelp over the last couple months, take a look at these numbers: Yelp’s unique users jumped from 16 million in December 2008 to a whopping 26 million in December 2009, explains Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman. They doubled the [...]

Augmented reality will be big in 5 years, says study

In a new report, Jupiter Research predicts augmented reality experiences on mobile devices will be a $732 million business by 2014. But at the same time, the study authors admit “there is much uncertainty as to how augmented reality content and services should be monetized.” While local applications of AR show lots of [...]

Google, Yelp walk away from talks

TechCrunch first reported that Google was poised to buy Yelp for as much as a half-billion dollars, but now the parties have walked away from the talks — possibly because of the leaked TechCrunch story in the first place.

The news of a possible acquisition (which could still happen) sent shockwaves through the local interactive media [...]

Yelp: Patient growth key to success

Here at the ILM 09 conference, Yelp COO Geoff Donaker says that it takes 18 to 36 months for Yelp to gain an adequate density of reviews in a new city. This measured city-by-city growth — instead of blanketing the country all at once — has been key to its success, he said, adding [...]

Yelp growing leaps and bounds

I’ve been a longtime user of Yelp, the local directory site that has grown market-by-market and often dominates local search terms. Yelp says it racked up 15 million uniques last month, up 200 percent year to date. Yelp recently added new functionality that allows businesses to enhance their listings and monitor their traffic [...]