That's not much different from any other form of word-of-
mouth advertising. If anything, it's worse.
"Did you hear about restaurant x?"
"They suck. Don't go there."
If you've only got one friend who's been there, that's all the data you have. At least with Yelp, you can see reviews from people you've never met. The big difference between Yelp and any other form of word-of-mouth advertising is that the business owner can actually see the reviews people are giving to others.
I find the Yelp reviews pretty hilarious, especially dives, I go to this one place all the time that does $2.95 cent breakfast (full plate, coffee, etc) and many reviews talk about how the breakfast was greasy, etc. I'm wondering what kind of culinary miracle they expected to happen for $2.95 cents.
Yelp is where people go to get recommendations and people with unrealistic expectations are given a soap box to pontificate.
I'm not saying every negative review is uncalled for, but I can't count the number of times I've heard someone say, "Fine, I'll write about this on Yelp." It's supposed to be a recommendation tool, not a weapon for revenge.
I really miss Zagat for restaurant reviews. (Thanks for nothing Google.) It seemed to attract a much more thoughtful and informed type of reviewer. For lack of better options, Yelp is still better than nothing but you get a lot of reviewers with seriously unrealistic expectations. My favorite are the reviews for things like (relatively) not-too-expensive NYC hotels that complain about things like the room being too small.
I'd personally be afraid of any meal that costs only $2.95 in Canada... And if I did give in, I'd consider not getting food poisoning to be a positive outcome.
I have one friend, if he says it's good, it's good. I have another friend, if he says it's bad, you can ignore him. Knowing your reviewers adds _a lot_ of context to the review, and you lose that online IMO.
"Did you hear about restaurant x?"
"They suck. Don't go there."
If you've only got one friend who's been there, that's all the data you have. At least with Yelp, you can see reviews from people you've never met. The big difference between Yelp and any other form of word-of-mouth advertising is that the business owner can actually see the reviews people are giving to others.