And that's only half the problem. As a developer, trying to use Yelp's API for anything by shop details is a waste of time. The search results are either completely random or do full-text search on the full review sets for each place.

We got some useless (albeit hilarious) results when using expletives such as 'f*face' and 'bullshit' as search terms. I guess the listed merchants wouldn't find it half as funny.

I never used Yelp until I moved to Los Angeles. It has saved me many times and helped me learn more about the city very quickly. I've also faced some of the problems the author has faced, though, and hope the Yelp team can keep improving their product.

My beef is Yelp's lack of data portability. No way to export my reviews.

In a way, this is a problem with the API, as if I could get (say) a WordPress plugin that would automatically post to both Yelp and my blog at the same time, I would write regular reviews. That's what really surprises me - their API has no write access!

Closest thing I've seen to that is Urban Spoon with it's blog integration. That's nice, but just I wish it had the active audience and content that Yelp has (which is perhaps because it goes beyond restaurants). I do like Urban Spoon's thumb's up/down rating option, which makes lightweight participation easier.

So I take it you've never tried Ness (http://www.likeness.com/)?

* Ratings don't need reviews

* Personalizes like Netflix

* Shiny mobile app

(Disclaimer: The CEO is a good friend of mine)

Wow! Looks cool! Why no Android app? Nowadays its cheaper to develop for all platforms and a mobile web site than just iPhone...

What do you mean cheaper to do more? It's obviously cheaper to just develop for one platform, and maybe to do a mobile website, vs. crossplatform.

It might be worth the extra users/revenue to be crossplatform, but it is definitely easier to focus on a single platform and do it well.

Precisely.

Shopping needs to be more social -- deals info needs to be delivered in real-time; buyers need to connect with each other, and even with sellers; search needs to be structured and location based.

And the shameless plug goes to...

Me! It goes to me! I'm doing it as we speak! 3 months in but no, I won't give a URL or name. I feel dirty and spammy if I did, first off, and it's just not ready for public usage.

But in any case you're right about people being connected. There's really little reason to use Yelp when Google is serving its function. What I'm doing involved connecting people like you said but then adding a loyalty aspect where people get to feel like they're part of a special club of patrons to a particular place and are rewarded for it only after proving that loyalty.

Perfect summary of how I feel about Yelp. Some of the best content in the history of the web, saddled with one of the saddest examples of product stagnation.

What a waste – they can be so much more.

yelp.com/maptastic is a cool feature

*edit nevermind, they killed that :(