Prior to this class, my experience with any types of social software had been very limited (I'd only briefly dabbled with IM and blogging before; never flickred or tagged or networked online in any way.) So my mind's been spinning a bit the past few weeks. When trying to find an even newer "new to me" application to discuss this week, I happened upon this useful list of some "award winning" Web 2.0 sites: http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/short
I checked a bunch of them out (and admit, was drawn in by some of the funny names...where do they come up with some of them?!?) One of the ones that I thought could be potentially quite useful (even for a not-yet-initiated-in-the-2.0-world user) was Yelp.
From its "About Us" page, Yelp is "word of mouth marketing---amplified". It's a place for people to write reviews about anything "from martinis to mechanics." While it's apparent that the yelping communities have a wider scope and voice in bigger cities (and especially in San Francisco, where it was founded), even smaller local neighborhoods have been "yelped".
I think Yelp would be most useful for someone looking for a hotel or restaurant recommendation in a city or town they've never visited before. This is part of the beauty of social software, how one can get friendly, "word of mouth" advice about a place where one doesn't even have any actual friends. I like how Yelp lets users limit what they're looking for with its very specific filters. A google map follows you up and down the screen too so you can see exactly where the recommended places are (but, if it makes you dizzy, you also have the option of telling the map to "stop following me".)
This is a type of Web 2.0 tool that I think would only get better with time as more people start to participate. More reviewers would provide more extensive coverage of each area as well as balance out some of the reviews. I'm excited to give it a try the next time we visit another city.
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It's interesting that these things seem to find a home in large cities where they are not even really needed. For instance in NYC we have the Village Voice, Time Out NY, New York Magazine, New York Press, NY Times and others, BUT people still defer to online communities (chowhound, for instance). It seems like a tool like YELP would be best suited to small towns without a large amount of press. I used to live in Knoxville, TN and I think that place could have benefited (and may now benefit) from a healthy online presence.
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