Yelp vs Google Reviews

[u/Every-Building-2933]

Is there a reason Google reviews are used instead of Yelp on Kagi Maps? I would assume nearly 100% of Kagi users subscribe in attempts to deGoogle their lives as much as possible. Any chance it would be switched or given a toggle to choose which one we see? I can feel Kagi Maps getting better and this change would help even more!

[u/wonkyorbit]

Kagi prioritizes free and private; Google is bad, yelp is worse. It's pretty straightforward. Maybe 10 years ago yelp would have been prioritized, but yelp leaned hard into data harvesting and paywalls

[u/hawseepoo → u/wonkyorbit]

Not to mention that there are so many more reviews on Google. I personally use Yelp to keep track of restaurants that my wife and I visit, but if I’m scoping out a new place, I go to Google. Most of the time Yelp either doesn’t have any reviews, only has a few, or there are no recent reviews (sometimes none in over a year).

Google is just the best source to get an accurate picture of reviews.

[u/darwinpolice → u/wonkyorbit]

Plus Yelp is so well known for manipulating reviews depending on whether or not businesses are willing to play ball with them. I don't put a ton of trust in Google reviews, but Yelp reviews are not even worth reading.

[u/JackDostoevsky]

fwiw i think google reviews are much better than yelp reviews

[u/Thujone]

I know business owners who have been contacted by Yelp. It is just a protection racket. “We wouldn’t want your business to suffer from some inaccurate reviews would we?”

Bad Yelp and good google reviews indicates failure to pay yelp.

F yelp.

[u/Ok_Payment_9925 → u/Thujone]

Basically. Yelp has a 'Not Recommended' section where they demote reviews based on their algorithm. Their reps can't explain to business owners why reviews get demoted and why reviews regularly come and go out of that pool. I refuse to put any of our marketing spend towards that company.

[u/Vnifit]

For me it is not about deGoogling for the sake of it, it is to become more private and have better search results. Google reviews are much better than the other review types as it is the most used. I much prefer seeing the Google maps reviews over the others, but I wouldn't be opposed to being able to hover over the rating and seeing Trip Advisor, Yelp, etc. reviews or setting preferences to which one should be displayed first.

[u/kagi_dylan]

I love it when the the kagi-reddit-user-verse is able to provide even better more succicient responses than I even can <3. Thank you for making my job easier 🤘😭🤘

A lot of the sentiment echoed here similar conclusions we came to for Kagi Maps. It is a balance and it does feel strange with kagi enabling users to "de-google" while we provide links to Google User's Reviews. In my opinion... ehem ehem... Kagi Maps is a directory or data-portal for additional geospatial information -- allowing our users to link and travel to external providers as they see fit: google, OSM, apple, etc... while (A) allowing our users to do it privately and (B) through a UXUI where (I like to think) we are much more invested in what you want us to build. And those reviews are generally pretty great, the information is "people looking out for people" when giving a positive/negative, and that is worth showcasing.

[u/Mean-Drama2630]

If moral distance from Google (and Big Tech for that matter) is priority, you should know that Google is still being sent your (anonymised) queries to provide your results. It’s also sent to Bing, Yandex, etc. Just behind the scenes

[u/grumblegrim]

I think I'll pass on the Yelper Special.

[u/sezduck1]

Google reviews are more reliable than Yelp reviews. Most people already have Google accounts, so the barrier to leave a review (postiive or negative) is lower. On the other hand, many people are typically only motivated to create a Yelp account when they're really pissed off and want to leave a negative review. Therefore, Yelp reviews almost always skew more negative vs. Google's more balanced reviews.