If it's a restaurant, shop or business, it's probably been reviewed on Yelp — an independent site with millions of user-submitted evaluations. Yelp's got a gaggle of rivals — most notably Yahoo! Local — but it's the only one that lets reviewees talk back. After businesses complained about their reputation getting trashed by careless reviews, this spring the site began allowing
proprietors to e-mail reviewers directly, make instant changes to their company details on the site and see how many people have visited their Yelp listing. For you, that means more rounded and accurate reviews.
—Anita Hamilton