Google/Yelp Partnership Would Be Local Success
Yelp is a Web site that helps people search for local businesses in a particular city. If you put in your city and search for restaurants, you will receive a list of all the restaurants in the area and most importantly user reviews and ratings as well. You can see the ratings and decide where your next weekend dinner would be.
Google had been in discussions to acquire Yelp for $500 million or more. This move by Google would help the company reach a market they have been longing for: the local market. Over a period of time, Yelp has become a popular destination for people looking for new places to visit or for a particular service (dentist, carpenters, etc).
Therefore, the local data present on Yelp is huge and that coupled with Google’s search and maps is something exciting for both the company and its advertisers.
One possible integration approach: when a user searches for something, he will first see an ad on the search results page. Second will be an ad on the place page for that particular business and third will be ads on Google Maps, in case they are looking for directions to that business.
The deal hasn't materialized for now, but Google's intentions are pretty clear. The company wants to go local.
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