B4-u-eat.com gone, where to look now?

[Timnwendy]

I also believe there was something wrong with b4-u-eat. I used to post reviews there all the time. Every single one of my positive reviews appeared there, but many of my negative reviews never appeared. I lost faith in the site after that, and stopped doing reviews there.

[Oildog]

Originally Posted by bronstew

Yeah, I am really looking for hole-in-the-wall gems. I love cheap and delicious ethnic restaurants like Blue Nile and Cafe Pita. Not really interested in upscale stuff. I liked b4-u-eat because the list was so exhaustive. I would usually take a name from b4-u-eat and then check reviews on Yelp and Google. What's the best site for finding hole-in-the-wall places like that? Yelp, I guess?

A hole-in-the-wall, often is meaning relatively undiscovered. You don't find these on many review sites. You have to explore and leave your comfort zone to find them. That means just stopping in at the place in a strip mall or strange area. If you find one its great! But usually they are smaller and high traffic volumes could wreck the quality/atmosphere there. I usually don't post a review of such place. I may take someone there or mention it to someone, but won't publicly post...until enough others find it and it becomes popular.

Unfortunately you need to kiss a few frogs before you find the prince.

[vwgto]

B4-u-eat used to be the best source, but their information got dated. I also had reviews rejected when you had something bad to say. I would not totally dismiss Yelp. There is some good information there if you actually read what people are saying vs just looking at number of stars. Plus, you can follow reviewers that you learn to trust locally. I am cautious with novice reviewers who are either doing one-time venting or plugging.. When traveling, TripAdvisor is pretty good (and cross-reference with Yelp). None of the rating sites are perfect, but I have found that they increase your chances of a good experience.

[houstonfan]

Yes, Yelp is fixed to some degree. These sites make money by soliciting your business for service to manage your reviews. They claim they verify reviews and sort them based on credibility but I doubt that.
I was also going to say TripAdvisor, as far as I know, Trip advisor doesn't have a conflict of interest in that they aren't trying to sell the restaurant any internet service. But some people just have bad tastebuds in general (as evidenced on food threads on City Data) so you should always take every review with a grain of salt.

[theSUBlime]

TripAdvisor is edited as well. Again people, I said Online Reputation Management is a real thing and all sites that have any staying power has a person or group of people that do this job. Goes for Yelp, TripAdvisor, Open Table -- you name it. You pay more, you get more.

[Oildog]

Originally Posted by theSUBlime

TripAdvisor is edited as well. Again people, I said Online Reputation Management is a real thing and all sites that have any staying power has a person or group of people that do this job. Goes for Yelp, TripAdvisor, Open Table -- you name it. You pay more, you get more.

This is an interesting topic, so I looked it up. I figured some work had been done to improve a company image or prevent discrediting. But this almost seems like its developed into a business service all its own. I would guess this is something all companies have to take into account, since so much advertising or searching, is done by electronic means now (Yellow book...anybody..Buehler??).

[theSUBlime]

Originally Posted by Oildog

This is an interesting topic, so I looked it up. I figured some work had been done to improve a company image or prevent discrediting. But this almost seems like its developed into a business service all its own. I would guess this is something all companies have to take into account, since so much advertising or searching, is done by electronic means now (Yellow book...anybody..Buehler??).

Yes, it's a business all on its own at this point. You also have businesses that are entirely online. Since digital is still an emerging field in communications, it's not really being taught in schools, but it's what all companies want. Major education fail, unfortunately. My partner is in computer science and I'm in communications, and a lot of the places I've been looking what skills that he has. So, I expect to be seeing a lot more programs that integrate the two.

"How can I get my website on the first page of Google?" is all companies care about, because if it's not on the first page of Google, it doesn't exist as far as consumers are concerned. Also, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC), Web Development and User Experience (UX) are also fields that if you know them and know them well, you will get a job right now, guaranteed. You could genuinely open and make a seriously profitable business with professionals in these areas.

The thing I love about advertising/marketing is that you can learn a little about a lot of different fields because the vast majority of businesses use it. The thing I hate about it sometimes is that it changes so often.

[Oildog]

Keeping on topic...

I have used a couple other sites (that have been mentioned already) since B4-u-eat shut down a while back. What I was surprised was the amount of feedback I had received. As I travel a good amount, I have reviewed hotels and restaurants around the country. I have received several thank yous and notes of appreciation from owners and managers for positive reviews. On the flip side I have received notes from some places I didn't review as well. Asking me to better describe the issues I had, in hopes they could fix them (if it wasn't a person). The shock was places I reviewed as 'good or average' contacting me about what they could do better. I think some were trying to market themselves as higher end, and receiving a 3/5 was not good.

I figured I may get some feedback, but it has become more frequent in the last 6-12 months. So, businesses DO pay more attention to some of these rating sites, than I had thought.

[vwgto]

One point my wife always reminds me: If you are going to read/use reviews, you should make the effort to be a reviewer as well.

[ComeAtMe]

Take them all with a grain of salt, **** its getting to where there's people whose full time jobs are scamming/inflating/flat out lying on these review websites and you even have the websites themselves being shady and removing reviews based on who are paying a fee to them!