Leaving the house without your pocket Zagat guide or a whole heap of local knowledge once meant risking a mediocre meal. Then Yelp came along. The crowdsourced review site now hosts more than 20 million reviews and ratings of local business, and 35 percent of searches come from mobile devices.
What Yelp may lack in Michelin-star gravitas it makes up for in sheer numbers. Even small mom-and-pops can boast hundreds or even thousands of reviews. Not sure what type of dish you've got a hankering for? The app's Nearby function rattles off a list of local eateries, steering you away from that foundering falafel hut and into a steakhouse that's a cut above the rest.
It's not just for restaurants. From a dentist's chairside manner to the fluctuating price of gas at a local Chevron station, anything and everything is fair game for Yelpers' scorecards.
The great motivator, of course, is building your reviewer cred. Pen enough clever puns on lousy cable companies and subpar salad bars and you'll garner a cult following. Where real-world fellow diners may find your griping tiresome, other Yelpers can tag your reviews as Useful, Funny, or Cool. Where was this sort of validation in high school?
And it's only going to grow from here. In a sort of Foursquare-cum-Groupon hybrid, Yelp rolled out its local deals program to mobile users in June, 2011. One quick glance at the Check-In Offers section could point you to the nearest watering-hole two-for-one.
There still may be no such thing as a free lunch, but at least with Yelp's indispensable app, you'll know if that lunch is worth the price.
