yelp

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Study finds "about one-third of all consumer reviews on the Internet are fake."

- Why investors (but not consumers) love LinkedIn.

- Meet the people who comment on porn videos.

- Religious sites have more Trojans than naughty ones.… Read more

Yelp has revamped its homepage to integrate more social elements into the user experience, the company announced on its blog today. Yelp is rolling out the new site over the next few weeks.

The new interface means you will find it easier to access what your friends are yelping about.

The new features includes a newsfeed of sorts that will show your friends' activity on the site, including comments, check-ins, photos and tips. Users will also be able to comment on friends' activity.

Yelp has its own member profiles, but it also has an option to import your friends from … Read more

Film adaptations often don't live up to their source material. A new YouTube collection titled "Real Actors Read Yelp Reviews" actually enhances it.

You may recognize professional actor Chris Kipiniak from his appearances as Evan Goode on "The Good Wife," Clerk #2 in "Headcrusher," or Cop in "The Poker Club." Now, he's also the guy who gave a dramatic interpretation of a one-star Yelp review of Stratford Diner.

Kipiniak's powerful reading, set to a dramatic score, really communicates the reviewer's angst directed at the restaurant's manager. It elevates a simple Yelp review to a higher level of heart-rending existential conflict full of emotion, confusion, and crab cakes. … Read more

iPhone and iPad users who tap into Yelp will find a few enhancements in the latest version.

Rolled out yesterday, version 6 of the review site's iOS app has revamped its business pages. Click on the name of a business, and you'll see the location, contact info, photos, reviews, and tips all on one single screen.

Beyond reviewing a restaurant or other business, you can add tips to advise people on what to buy or what to avoid. You can compliment other people on their reviews of the business. And you can add photos of the business to … Read more

Apple will reportedly tie Yelp directly into its upcoming iOS 6 Maps apps to let you share your whereabouts with other people.

Sneaking a peek at the the Apple developer kit doled out to programmers this month, Bloomberg uncovered screenshots of the Yelp check-in feature within the new Maps app.

Yelp helps users find and review local restaurants and other businesses. But the app's check-in feature lets you share your travels with others so they can spot your location and see which businesses you frequent.

You can also see where other people have gone, strangers as well as friends, … Read more

Looking for the best place to get a specific dish in your area? Foodspotting for Android can help.

Say you're looking for the best snickerdoodle cookie in San Francisco. You could run a search on Yelp, which would pull up a list of all the bakeries and restaurants in the area that make them. But then you'd have to look at each profile, one by one, and click through to see pictures of each restaurant's cookies...if there are pictures of its cookies. If that sounds too tedious, then try Foodspotting for Android.

Searching on Foodspotting is … Read more

Looking for the best place to get a specific dish in your area? Foodspotting for Android can help.

Say you're looking for the best snickerdoodle cookie in San Francisco. You could run a search on Yelp, which would pull up a list of all the bakeries and restaurants in the area that make them. But then you'd have to look at each profile, one by one, and click through to see pictures of each restaurant's cookies...if there are pictures of its cookies. If that sounds too tedious, then try Foodspotting for Android.

Searching on Foodspotting is … Read more

If you ask a friend where to eat or for their favorite dish at a specific restaurant, you'll probably give their suggestion a lot more weight than an automatically generated one, especially if that friend knows your tastes in food.

That's the basic premise behind Jybe, a brand-new iPhone app that launched today. Built by a small team led by three longtime search industry veterans, the app is designed to give users highly relevant suggestions for restaurants--including specific dishes--as well as movies, books, and other things.

These days, there's plenty of ways to get recommendations and reviews … Read more

U2 frontman Bono is embarking on a solo tour but it doesn't involve music. A private equity firm co-founded by the musician is hitting the road to search for more money, according to Reuters.

Elevation Partners, which has invested heavily in social networking, is now looking to dig up $1 billion for a second fund, reports Reuters. The company's largest investment to date has been in Facebook, to the tune of $270 million, which came in three installments and valued the social networking site at $16 billion at the time. (The company is now estimated to be worth $… Read more