At one time, Google was in the process of acquiring Yelp. But ever since that deal fell through, there have been tensions on both sides. We’ve been following Google’s heavy focus on local search lately. And it turns out that Google is currently relying largely on Yelp listings in these search results.
The problem is, Yelp doesn’t like it.
Because Google used to pay Yelp for this data. But now Google acquires it simply by crawling for it. So, Yelp has two options. Delist from Google and die a quick death. Or be amazingly psyched that Google is giving you so much 1st-page publicity and find another way to monetize. I personally learned about Yelp through a Google local search result. And I think it’s safe to say that most people did, too. So, instead of trying to create an impossible revenue possibility, be excited that you’re getting this first-to-market benefit over your other competitors like UrbanSpoon, Citysearch and more.