Google Acquires Zagat 114
quantr writes "Google has acquired Zagat, one of the most well-known names in restaurant reviews. Zagat is best known for its small guidebooks (the dead-tree sort) that offer reviews and recommendations on restaurants around the world. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed."
Newly accepted submitter jkirch writes with a link to Google's announcement.
Goodbye Yelp (Score:2)
You had a good run but it appears that Google will be destroying you in the next year.
Yours Truly,
A future former yelp user
Re:Goodbye Yelp (Score:4, Insightful)
1. Yelp is no Apple (iPhone/iPod/iTunes; probably the best designed/marketed/developed products in 50 years. I detest the Apple approach, but I respect their success and understanding of their market).
2. Google's first social network (Orkut) launched before Facebook, but Facebook's approach was more appealing to US consumers. But we don't yet know what's going to happen with Google+. However, Facebook is no Apple either.
3. Zagat is focused on a narrower market than Yelp.
Hopefully, Yelp will continue to develop. They have a lot of value as is. However, I wouldn't want Google to suddenly enhance one of the competitors in my space. It may be that this aquisition will actually help Yelp; we don't know what Google is planning yet.
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iTunes may be well marketed but all the errors I get with it point at something other than "well developed".
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iPhone/iPod/iTunes; probably the best designed/marketed/developed products in 50 years.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, please, go on.
Oh my god, you even put that piece of shit iTunes in there for an additional touch, man, you're good.
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Projectingly Yours,
Pot
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Specifically: it was NOT designed/marketed/developed for/at YOU.
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3. Zagat is focused on a narrower market than Yelp.
not only that... zagat editors provide the service of compiling and sorting all the consumer reviews into tidy lists printed in a book. yelp is just a big mass of opinions per location with a few limited sort options to wade through the mess.
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Zagat? But this tastes like anus!
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3. Zagat is focused on a narrower market than Yelp.
For now, anyway. I think it's reasonable to assume Zagat will become a standard app on Android and expand from there.
Yelp could use some editors. Five years ago it was really helpful, today it's suffering from lower quality reviews.
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Zagat,
Now on boycott list.
Yelp? Moved to my top, with Monocle.
Fuck Yelp (Score:2)
I had over 70 reviews on there, mostly positive. This one place totally ripped me off. They censored my fair and honest negative review, then they deleted my account, and all 70 of my reviews. Many of the reviews were for undiscovered and locally owned gems that needed the exposure.
Fuck Yelp. Censoring Nazi Puss Bags.
Oh, for the record, the business was "San Elijo Dance and Music Academy". They STILL owe me $300, and the owners Ben and Laurie-Michelle are total charlatans, phonies, and liars. I really
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And good riddance to bad rubbish.
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and yelp has been accused of extorting local businesses. i went to a restaurant on monday and most of the yelp reviews were so so to bad. i was surprised when i had some really good greek food.
zagat is a much better brand than yelp and the whole crowd sourcing thing is a 50/50 crap shoot most of the time
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Even funnier! You should do some stand-up!
Oops, are you being serious again? My bad.
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Has yelp ever been -caught- extorting anyone? Because otherwise, those accusations are just shitty restaurants whining.
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Every parent ever has been accused of being "totally mean" or "UNFAIR" by the children they're disciplining.
Parents ask for an "advertising" payment in exchange for allowing good reviews to be posted?
A limited field trial (Score:2)
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Wow, that's funny stuff right there! "Wisdom of the crowd", LOL!
Wait, you're being serious?
Uh...
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How did Google Plus fail? Sure, the hype died off, so the numbers dropped. But last I checked (quickly clicks a link); the community is still doing fine.
Actually, when I was in Las Vegas over last weekend I posted a few things (with the location enabled), and managed to quickly grab around 2-4 followers a post, some of whom are actually rather interesting people. The same post (well, a link to the Google post, since Facebook has a completely arbitrary character limit, forcing conversations along the most
Slashdot, coming to you 4 months in future! (Score:1)
"Google shuts down their recently acquired restaurant reviews service"
Well there you go folks, the claw of Google kills again.
Who will be next!
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Embrace, extend, extinguish.
The best learn from the best.
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You're suppose to extinguish the competition, not your own service and making the competition stronger.
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People used to trash Microsoft relentlessly for constantly buying smaller companies in order to hurt competition.
Not highly confident in Zagat ratings (Score:3)
I watch some of those "failing restaurant" shows: Kitchen Nightmares, Restaurant Impossible, etc.
MANY of those places have Zagat stickers in the windows, often with good ratings. And yet their businesses are dying and the TV chefs think the food is awful. Customers are scarce, so there must be a reason. Some of the problems with food quality and cleanliness might be overstated for shock value, but it never looks like the TV chef has to try very hard to find problems.
What's up with all of these Zagat-rated disaster restaurants? Does anyone on Slashdot know what's going on?
Re:Not highly confident in Zagat ratings (Score:4, Informative)
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That's the closest thing I have seen to a plausible answer. There are some sleazy companies that I know for a fact had a lengthy BBB rap sheet, and now they are mysteriously sanitized.
I guess the concept of an owner promoting his business through bogus, self-congratulatory reviews is older than the Internet.
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The whole point of the show is that the food is bad or the place is dirty. If this is not the case they invent drama. Customers are scarce because they chase them out if need be. They need drama so they create it if it is not there.
Also being rated by Zagat does not mean you got a good rating. Even the worst rating they give would still mean they rated you.
Re:Not highly confident in Zagat ratings (Score:4, Insightful)
A successful restaurant owner does not volunteer for these "makeover" shows. If you have customers, the last thing you want is a TV crew taking up space. If your place is packed, advertising won't help. Although many of the owners have claimed the show manufactured drama, a lot of what they show would hard to create just for the camera -- unless of course it was there already. How many restaurant owners are likely to admit the findings are accurate? In the cases where the TV chef sends in a cleaning crew to address years of unsanitary kitchen conditions, it's hard to believe they brought in years of grease buildup.
I understand there are some restaurant owners who think their only problem is marketing, so free TV publicity is all they think they need. But I know of some great restaurants that are always packed. Their success is pretty much self-sustaining (even with zero advertising) as long as customer satisfaction is high. Sooner or later something happens to break the cycle and a downward spiral begins. Very rarely is a restaurant failing due to a sudden lack of advertising.
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Yeah, I think I'd even take the spotty Yelp ratings over Zagat nowadays, it's actually quite sad. I used to play with Zagat a bunch of years ago, and even maybe paid for their Blackberry app once, but it didn't really deliver the goods when we turned to it for our night out. My suspicion is that Google will simply add some of the Zagat editorial to some of the Yelp content, and maybe level out some of those 5-star crap chain listings that litter the listings of unique establishments, but I don't intend to
Tiger Uppercut! (Score:5, Funny)
Google must still defeat Shen Long to stand a chance.
What a hoax! (Score:2)
Sheng Long, like Zagat, is just a hoax.
Sweet! (Score:2)
Maybe one day the government will need to break up google also and then years later let it recombine!
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That is exactly what i was talking about! You are right on point!
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Years? Days is more likely. Cut off advertizing business and other parts will die in instant death.
Food ID's (Score:1)
So, when this combines with my real Google ID I can't anonymously trash restaurants online anymore? So my food can be spat in when the manager recognizes me from my picture as "that guy that wrote the detailed review of how my restaurant sucks."
I don't think it will work out too well.
Re:Food ID's (Score:4, Insightful)
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Because you're friend's wife really likes the place for some reason. And you want to get with her cute sister so you try to spend as much time with them as possible.
Re:Food ID's (Score:4, Insightful)
He didn't say the food was horrible, he just said he wanted to trash it anonymously online.
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Bad reviews don't necessarily have to do with the quality of the food. The problems could be due to poor service, etc.
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Not everyone lives in the Mission District of San Francisco with fancy, delicious places like Tartine or Delfina or Ritual Coffee on every block. Some of us out in the wastelands of suburbia have to deal with the same crappy few places (Starbucks, McDonald's) any time we want coffee out in the morning, or we have to drive 15 minutes out of our way.
(Mind you, I'm not one of those people anymore. But.)
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Or, alternatively, using Google's real internet ID the manager has a very direct way to succinctly turn my trashing into constructive criticism by nipping the problem in the bud.
Maybe it will work after all.
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Actually, Zagat did a survey of people's fast food preferences. http://www.zagat.com/fastfood [zagat.com]
The survey was from a whopping 6,000 people where the requirement for a large chain had to have at least 5,000 locations.
Good for KFC, bad for Zagat's credibility that most people read that to mean that Zagat rated their chicken the best. Rather is points out the crowd isn't always the smart thing to take your advice from.
If you took popularity into account Bud Light would be the "best" beer.
Makes sense, but then what wouldn't? (Score:2)
The acquisition makes sense, in that they obviously want ratings of restaurants (and other places) on Maps, and they've already changed tactics there once or twice. This'll pretty much take care of that problem.
I start to wonder, though, whether any acquisition by Google wouldn't "make sense". Their purchase of Motorola Mobility [slashdot.org] makes sense, too (though not to everyone [slashdot.org]). When you buy a consumer electronics company and a restaurant guide in consecutive months, what won't you buy? What acquisitions won
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A Pokemon joke? Sheesh, it's like everything old is new again. Next we'll be seeing links to Shiny Mudkips...
-l
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HTC just filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple using patents they bought from Google, which had just acquired the patents as part of the Motorola Mobility deal. That acquisition is thus paying dividends already. It also stopped MM from following through on its threat to sue Android manufacturers for patent infringement.
If Google puts Zagat information on Maps, it would be a killer feature. It would instantly put Google above Yelp in terms of rating restaurants.
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The patents that google sold/gave to HTC were purchased last year. The Google/Motorola deal hasn't yet been approved by shareholders or regulators. They are still separate companies.
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Yes, and no. Zagat's ratings are 'user-driven', and while not subject to the kind of spam online rating are, they have problems of their own. Restaurants off the trend line tend to not garner as high as rating as those that are on it. Restaurants tend to hang onto their ratings for longer than mig
Crappy Link (Score:5, Informative)
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And removing the / shows that it's behind a paywall.
Next weeks news: Zagat sues Frommer's (Score:2)
You heard it here first!
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You're such a wanker, Kendall.
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That's Super to you sir.
Coming from a user that has chosen a scatologically based UID it has very little impact on my thinking...
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Of course not. Only Apple impacts your thinking.
Navteq uses Zagat (Score:1)
Navteq, a map competitor of Google, (who provides the map tiles to Bing) uses Zagat. I'm sure they are not happy.
http://www.nn4d.com/site/global/learn/product_catalog/poi/zagats_travel/p_zagats_travel.jsp
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I stopped trusting Zagat for reviews... (Score:3)
When they sold out, started "reviewing" chain fast food restaurants, and started giving "Best Of" awards to places like KFC and Burger King.
I wonder how much the big fast food places paid off Zagat to get their stickers in almost every corporate owned fast food place out there?
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Well in Kansas City Red Lobster has a Zagots rating of great ... or so I was told.
That is because people who vote there do not know any better or know about quality salt water sea food. They think fried is good and so is the atmosphere of family style.In Boston you would be caught dead seeing Red Lobster rated!
I do agree that it can be manipulated. When I lived in NYC a decade ago I wanted the best Pizzeria in Manhatten. One of them had a great rating but it was TERRIBLE. Just a tiny dirty place that had a
Just remember (Score:3)
Unless you are buying ads from Google you are not a user to them, you are a product to them.
YOU ARE THE PRODUCT!
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Yes, and the same goes for everything supported by advertisements. Slashdot, for instance.
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I may be the product, but they still have to keep me happy or else I will take my business elsewhere, then they won't have me to sell to the advertisers and they loose that business. Just like TV has to make good shows or I won't watch it. In that way I am still a customer.
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TV has to make good shows ... can't tell if serious.
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read the second part of the sentence ... I didn't say I watched
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Wait a minute, I am the product?!
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!
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it's people!
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Pronunciation
enPR: prd-kt, IPA:
Noun
1. A quantity obtained by multiplication of two or more numbers.
2. A group of people who must be continually satisfied by your free service of else they will go be produced by someone else.
It's okay fellas; his story checks out.
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Welcome to advertising 101! Let's begin with the invention of the newspaper in 1605, where the invention of "people as a product" was invented four hundred years ago . Perhaps consider adding some commentary rather than some tired soundbyte from reddit please. Just because Rob left Slashdot doesn't mean we need to degenerate it in to yet another meme mirror.
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I don't believe this reedit thing was around when I joined /. -- pray tell troll?
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What business is Google in?
The advertising business. Or at least that's where they make all their money.
Indexing content or providing content?
Google's stated mission [google.com] is to "organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful". So indexing existing content that's already available or finding information that isn't currently available and making it available could both plausibly fit.
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What business is Google in? Indexing content or providing content?
They are in the advertising business which is supported, to a great extent, by search. Indexing content and providing content are two complementary approaches to delivering quality search. Recently, we've seen much more federated search on Google--in other words, combining results from different resources. For instance, a search for Apple will give you results from the web index mixed in with results from image search and product search.
An example where one of the elements is content that Google provides
google+, google places, google maps, latitude (Score:2)
If google now starts to throw local competence buy buying local companies into that scheme, then it gets scary.
2013's headline: Google to shut down Zagat (Score:2)
Google is like the rich kid with too many toys.
How long before Google shuts down Zagat? This can be nothing but a drop in the bucket of their global strategy. Why bother?
As a stockholder, I'd be ticked about their endless wasteful acquisitions and distractions.
What's the point? (Score:2)
I suspect that what they're hoping to accomplish with this acquisition if what they were going for when they offered to buy Groupon. And that is local targeted advertising.
But I can't help but wonder, what's the point? You mean to tell me Google couldn't build a system internally and promote it under whatever brand they create?
Google has spent untold millions for three things: a website they'll almost certain rebuild, print publications they will now have to manage, and and established brand. It's a given t
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I Didn't Know McDonalds Was That Good (Score:3)
Zagat Rated +1 (Score:2)
You know it is gonna happen.
Why Zagat? (Score:1)
Clearly they're looking for restaurants to find the best way to cook an apple.
Microsoft shop (Score:2)
Zagat's former CTO was quite a Microsoft enthusiast. Wonder what Google's going to do with that pile of stuff.