I hope Google can maintain the quality of the Zagat ratings while simultaneously making them freely available – presumably this will be used to compete with Yelp, and I'm hopeful that it'll be useful.
Agreed. The best part of Zagat reviews (at least the core reviews in their guides) and what makes users like me rely on them is that they're curated -- the editors collect survey results from a wide variety of (relatively) trusted diners and summarize them.
The problem with "mass" review sites like Google Places or Yelp is that they're reactive -- they don't solicit reviews (and in fact discourage that in some cases). So people generally review only when motivated to do so (either positively or negatively), giving a relatively unbalanced result.
Hope Google can keep the Zagat spirit alive and well...!
Comments
I hope Google can maintain the quality of the Zagat ratings while simultaneously making them freely available – presumably this will be used to compete with Yelp, and I'm hopeful that it'll be useful.
Agreed. The best part of Zagat reviews (at least the core reviews in their guides) and what makes users like me rely on them is that they're curated -- the editors collect survey results from a wide variety of (relatively) trusted diners and summarize them.
The problem with "mass" review sites like Google Places or Yelp is that they're reactive -- they don't solicit reviews (and in fact discourage that in some cases). So people generally review only when motivated to do so (either positively or negatively), giving a relatively unbalanced result.
Hope Google can keep the Zagat spirit alive and well...!