Google Trying to Buy Yelp

Popular business review site Yelp is under negotiations to be acquired by Google for $500 million, according to TechCrunch. Google has had its wallet open lately, with their recent purchase of AdMob for $750 million and other rumored deals.

Google is building out their own directory of local businesses with its Place Pages, which can be accessed via Google Maps and local search. They are encouraging local businesses to putGoogle-branded stickers in store windows and recently added their own ratings summaries to business profiles. Yelp, of course, already has all of this data, along with a growing and active audience of consumers who are used to finding (and rating) businesses on Yelp.

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