Once again - another site trying to use social networking to collect marketing data. Yelp.com is a well-known online hub for user reviews of local businesses. I use it all the time.
One particularly weak aspect of Yelp is its social networking component. Yes - you must register to post reviews of your favorite restaurant or dog-sitter. You are required to display your real first name. And encouraged to use your real photo in your user icon. You can make friends on Yelp, but few do. For whatever reason, users are averse to socializing in this space.
In short, Yelp is a place to click around and read reviews... and not much more.
In the meantime, Facebook is fast becoming the monster with two heads. One of those heads is the social networking giant's long-term business goal to partner with other websites to share user data.
In this way, your web experience becomes hyper-personalized. You can "like" various websites or products on the web. And you are guided in your web usage by similar data coming in from your Facebook network of friends.
What does that mean in real life? Well, as of April 21, 2010, your personal Yelp account has been linked without your permission to your Facebook account. You were not notified of this change.
Let me break this down, in case the implications are not abundantly clear. This means as you use sites like Yelp, all of your actions on that site are tracked by Facebook. Your usage patterns are owned by Facebook. Friend suggestions pop up as you read reviews, pulling data from the friends on Facebook. Your Yelp reviews are automatically posted to your Facebook wall.
Why is this a problem? First, web users demand privacy online. They will go out of their way to ensure their experience remains anonymous unless they have granted specific permission.
Second, my aversion is unique to the cultural space occupied specifically by Facebook. Facebook has done the impossible -- it knows my real identity. It knows everything about me. Therefore, when I use Facebook's partner sites, my experience becomes compromised -- not partially, but completely. My web behavior becomes a function of my total personhood.
Third, in the case of Yelp, the invasion of privacy occurs in a space where I have not agreed to it. User permission is the turnkey component overlooked by sites like Facebook and Yelp.
This is something of a contemporary tragedy. The technology is good. The technology is rock solid. And the benefits to a marketer are so tantalizingly close they can undoubtedly taste it. The benefits to the user are less tangible. Imagine -- a company not only knowing what you're doing online, but knowing your age, school, location, gender, and interests.
Because Facebook already owns all the data on this site, they will also own information from partner sites.
The final offense is specific to Yelp. For all its best intentions, Yelp has evolved as a REVIEW site. I do not use Yelp to see notifications about my sorority sister with whom I have not spoken in years. That freaks me out. When Yelp attempts to force social networking into its business model, it ignores the way that users are interacting with the site. I have NO doubt user feedback was not a part of the negotiation process with Facebook.
I don't take issue with the technology. I protest the way the technology was integrated without permission. Sites like Yelp will come very quickly to not abuse the trust users have put in it when they offered their real names.
Users have been generous enough to share their lives with these websites, to take down the walls that separate their real selves from their online identities. This assimilation is an emotional experience. If that trust is compromised, they will react emotionally.
In short, the integration of Facebook and Yelp was wildly mishandled. Yelp should have sent a message to each of its members presenting the opportunity to opt in to Facebook. If I'd been asked, I probably would have agreed.
May I be one of many, many twenty-somethings who know how to fight for their privacy online. But may I also preach the "gospel of usage" -- integrating social networking into a space where users have not asked for it will be resented. And it will fail.
R.I.P. Google Buzz
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