Yelp’s journey to being the leader in local content has been uneventful, unlike the dramas surrounding the likes of Groupon, Google and LivingSocial. But as the leaders in the deals space try to expand their business models, and as Foursquare tries to boost its revenue, Yelp seems to have little competition in the local arena. What about Google, you ask? Yes, it’s an advertising machine and is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on acquisitions (i.e., Zagat and Frommer’s), but its struggles remain glaring. Yelp’s CEO recently acknowledged Google’s presence in the field, but that all its big announcements amount to attempts to re-energize “something that’s been struggling for a long time.” He also said Yelp is “inventing local search around big data,” and that they’re going to build products people haven’t seen yet. (PandoDaily)
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