Yelp sucks

glatt · 08-14-2013, 08:18 AM

On this most recent trip, I installed the Yelp app on my phone. My wife had the app on her phone too. The idea was that it would help us find good places to eat. It sees where you are and tells you what restaurants are nearby and you can see the ratings given by users.

My complaint was that the results were in no particular order. They weren't listed by distance. They weren't listed in alphabetical order. They weren't listed by rank in the review. They weren't listed by price. I have to assume there was some sort of payola thing going on to generate the list order, because it seemed completely random.

I couldn't find a way to filter out chains. We spent like half an hour in our hotel room in Williamsport PA looking on Yelp for a decent place to eat. We were starving and grumpy and just wanted some good food. Williamsport is a sketchy town. It seems like 90% of the restaurants there are chains. So if you want a Red Lobster, an Olive Garden, or a Long John Silver, you are all set. If you want to eat at a nice independent place, you'll have some trouble finding a good one on Yelp.

We finally gave up on Yelp, and went downstairs to the desk to ask for a recommendation. They recommended the Red Lobster and a brewery that served burgers. Didn't want to take the kids to the brewery on a Friday night. So back to the room, we pulled up Trip Advisor through our phones' browsers. Trip Advisor's list of top Restaurants in Williamsport is sorted by the ratings, and the top ten or so spots are all good independent places. It took 30 seconds to find a promising place.

We found a nice Thai place right downtown and went there. It was delicious. We couldn't even find the place on Yelp when we were looking at all the choices.

I've uninstalled the Yelp app.

Perry Winkle · 08-14-2013, 08:39 AM

I've never had that problem with Yelp. I've always found it pretty easy to filter down to what I was looking for (usually mom and pop ethnic food), and sort by distance/relevance/price/open now.

My problem with this whole class of apps is that you have to look in all of them until you find which one is used most in a given area. Is this a Yelp, Urban Spoon or Trip Advisor town? Who knows. Check them all and infer which you should be using.

08-14-2013, 08:18 AM	#1
glatt ™ Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 27,717	Yelp sucks On this most recent trip, I installed the Yelp app on my phone. My wife had the app on her phone too. The idea was that it would help us find good places to eat. It sees where you are and tells you what restaurants are nearby and you can see the ratings given by users. My complaint was that the results were in no particular order. They weren't listed by distance. They weren't listed in alphabetical order. They weren't listed by rank in the review. They weren't listed by price. I have to assume there was some sort of payola thing going on to generate the list order, because it seemed completely random. I couldn't find a way to filter out chains. We spent like half an hour in our hotel room in Williamsport PA looking on Yelp for a decent place to eat. We were starving and grumpy and just wanted some good food. Williamsport is a sketchy town. It seems like 90% of the restaurants there are chains. So if you want a Red Lobster, an Olive Garden, or a Long John Silver, you are all set. If you want to eat at a nice independent place, you'll have some trouble finding a good one on Yelp. We finally gave up on Yelp, and went downstairs to the desk to ask for a recommendation. They recommended the Red Lobster and a brewery that served burgers. Didn't want to take the kids to the brewery on a Friday night. So back to the room, we pulled up Trip Advisor through our phones' browsers. Trip Advisor's list of top Restaurants in Williamsport is sorted by the ratings, and the top ten or so spots are all good independent places. It took 30 seconds to find a promising place. We found a nice Thai place right downtown and went there. It was delicious. We couldn't even find the place on Yelp when we were looking at all the choices. I've uninstalled the Yelp app.

08-14-2013, 08:39 AM	#2
Perry Winkle Esnohplad Semaj Ton Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: A little south of sanity Posts: 2,259	I've never had that problem with Yelp. I've always found it pretty easy to filter down to what I was looking for (usually mom and pop ethnic food), and sort by distance/relevance/price/open now. My problem with this whole class of apps is that you have to look in all of them until you find which one is used most in a given area. Is this a Yelp, Urban Spoon or Trip Advisor town? Who knows. Check them all and infer which you should be using.

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