| Disclaimer, I work for Yelp (a backend infra team) TFA includes, although not clearly enough, at least one example of exactly this behavior (Google being big hurting consumer's) in their scheme to squash Yelp by inserting their own local results (with big ui) on the front page. There have been multiple studies showing the content on Yelp is far more evolved than Google's content (in # of ratings, # of reviews, average quality of reviews, # and quality of photos). This is even with Google leveraging it's dominant market share in the mobile space to proactively push users to rate business simply by an AI connecting the dots on location. These nag alerts are not even something that can be disabled without also disabling all of Android location-tracking! Which is very irritating for me as I find many such features (for example, location history has saved my rear several times when I lost items.) This isn't a fanboy battle like Sega vs Nintendo. I'm not anti-google, hell I'm totally bought into their ecosystem (have had an Android since the g1, use a Google home, Google WiFi, Android TV, use all Google's office suit, Gmail, etc). But even if you personally dislike Yelp (that's fine), it is simply a fact that Yelp has superior content in the local niche. Google is intentionally burying a competitor which has a verifiably huge quality advantage in the local review niche rather than improving their product/content enough for it to compete naturally. This IS anti-competitive behavior which IS hurting consumer's. It even has downstream impacts on consumer's experiences within Yelp itself! Another comment complains about Yelp bugging you to install the mobile client rather than just show the result - this is absolutely a response to the existential threat of Google continuing to use their search monopoly to prevent fair competition. For better or worse it's the best shelter from the Google: at least until they start doing the same thing with Play Store... This isn't even only a Yelp problem. Why does Expedia, for example, push users so hard to get the mobile app? Because Google has inserted their own travel booking widgets at the top of the results as well! Why is venmo killing off the website version in favor of mobile only? Maybe it has something to do with what you see at the top of a Google search for 'send money'. The thing that is SO important to stress is that even if you are a Google fan (as I am), or perhaps ESPECIALLY if you are, anti-competitive behavior like this only results in hurting consumers by killing off competition. Turns out competition results in improvements for consumers. And it's actually a big deal. |