File this one under the, "it's good to have cash reserves in a down economy" category.
According to
this report on MarketWatch, Google is in talks to purchase local business review site
Yelp. Google would pay around $500 million for the popular service, which in my mind, is a steal. Given Yelp's robust community, Google would be acquiring yet another dominant platform for which to sell advertising space. If used well, Google could easily recoup the investment.
I can't help but wonder if this is an admission by Google that their own local business listing offerings are lacking in functionality and social features. This is purely anecdotal evidence, but I've found that most web users are more apt to leave reviews and comments on Yelp listings than Google's version. In fact, Google frequently pulls data from Yelp to populate its own business listings.
If Google acquires Yelp, will they tie the service into their own offerings, or look to keep Yelp as a self-sustaining community?
Leave your opinion in the comments!
