This week the Net social review site Yelp officially commented that they have employed Abby Schwarz as their new community executive for St. Louis. Abby has been an active Yelp user since 2008 and asked for the job on an impulse.

Now Loopt is leaping into Yelp's territory by making these local reviews available online. Like Yelp, each business has a fresh page, where you can see hours, location (thru a Google Map), ratings, photos and more.

Nextstop is a user-generated site, like Yelp. It concentrates on only positive reviews, which are about 2 sentences long. The disadvantage to this format is if you need to see if Rome's Spanish Steps are worth a visit, nobody will tell you that it is a traveller trap and to avoid it. You will only get a smash on the place if somebody suggests it. And if you're attempting to find in-depth information on a spot, you'll need to do your own further research.

Google is in speaks to obtain Yelp, a web local search and business review supplier, in a deal that might be worth a lot more than US$500 million, according to unconfirmed accounts first reported by TechCrunch. Google and Yelp didn't reply to the E-Commerce.