Yelp

Boston Food Diary alerts us to a brand-new, still-in-beta site called Smörgie (Nigel Tufnel a consultant?), whose goal is to let you share restaurant/bar recommendations:

... [It] allows you to upload a list of your favorite restaurants, complete with comments on your favorite or least favorite things about the place, and then share those lists with your friends. It will organize your "wish list" of restaurants and is even there for you with suggestions when you're looking for a cocktail after a rough day. ...

Yelp Boston thinks Allston/Brighton, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain and Roslindale are "beyond city limits!" Maybe it's time to break down and actually hire editors from the area? Nah.

Via Bostonist.

Over at Charlesgate Realty, Michael DiMella complains that Yelp has pulled several reviews of his business. And even though the ones that got yanked were the less-than-perfect ones (he now only has reviews giving him perfect 5s), he's upset:

... I think this is a complete disrespect to me, my business, and my employees, not to mention my customers who WASTED their time writing their thoughtful reviews. We're promoting Yelp to our customers because Yelp provides us a tool to allow customers to comment freely (without our control) and gives us an opportunity to earn new business from the reviews (which I anticipate being mostly positive - hopefully!). And if we happen to get a bad review - even better - it will give us an opportunity to correct things!

But because of this, I have really had my faith in Yelp shaken. I am not sure if I should discontinue linking to Yelp, and mentioning Yelp to customers or not. What's the point? I don't want to waste my time or my customers' time. ...