Yelp Improves Your Social Life with New Events Service

by Brian Solis

I’ve been pretty dependent on Upcoming.org for a majority of professional and personal events. While I’ve also used others such as Eventful and Zvents, the content on Upcoming has been consistently exceptional as it is driven by people with similar tastes and interests – my friends. In social networking today, it’s all about the people and if you align with the right group, you can save countless hours trying to find events on your own.

I should probably include Facebook in this discussion as well since it has become the online digital hub or epicenter for many of us. Since a significant number of friends are in one place, we also use it to promote upcoming events and also to share those which we’ll also be attending. Plus, Upcoming.org also offers a Facebook app, which also lets my friends see my other events (not listed in Facebook).

OK, and while I’m at it, Pownce offers an events feature which rivals evite more than it does Upcoming, but it too, is another popular source of event discovery among the tech set in Silicon Valley.

But there’s room for more, as different people congregate in different places.

Enter Yelp Events.

Yelp just launched a new events service, which in many ways competes with Upcoming and other social-driven event communities, but as you would expect, reviews are a big part of the experience.

Yelp events is currently limited to 10 major cities in the US including San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, San Jose, Austin, Chicago, Washington D.C., and San Diego. But as we all know, Yelp users are fanatical, so expect those cities to multiply, quickly.

I’ve been tempted to become a Yelper – and definitely have impersonated one in order to attend – and document – some of the indescribable (aka fun) Yelp Elite parties. If I can rally up some time, I would love to contribute. After all, I read the reviews before I usually make reservations at any restaurant. And while I’m on a tangent, why don’t they integrate OpenTable functionality or visa versa. I’m sure they could make a business case that works for both companies. Why shouldn’t I be able to find a restaurant, read reviews from the people that I trust, and then make a reservation – all in one place.

OK, back to events While others will definitely use Yelp Events to find and share experiences, I chose to share my experiences about the events I attend here on bub.blicio.us. And so far, the people that I share interests with are highly concentrated in Upcoming and in Facebook.

I’ll keep my eyes on the new Yelp service, especially to simplify the process of discovering the corporate Yelp parties.
Other voices on the subject:

Webware

Robert Scoble, who also defines “bacn” for those wondering just what people have been talking about recently. Per Scoble, “It’s the emails that get generated by all these social networking sites (and other sites) when you sign in, or get a notification, or when you try to add friends (that generates bacn for your friends). It’s all covered on Andy Quayle’s site. According to Chris Brogan he was the first to use it.”

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bacn robert+scoble webware yelp upcoming upcoming.org zvents eventful events facebook social+network social network