Yelp Helps Small Businesses Turn Visitors Into Buyers, for a Fee

Mystic Maggie — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:11:42 +0000

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Yelp has introduced a new feature that could help business owners increase sales. The Call to Action ad tool allows entrepreneurs whose businesses are listed on Yelp to promote their products or services through their Yelp pages.

For instance, a hotel could offer a discounted room if the customer books immediately, or a storage business could allow users to reserve a unit at a special rate. Yelp attracts more than 100 million unique visitors each month with its search-friendly web listings and reviews of local businesses. With this new feature, Yelp is moving from simply giving businesses visibility — and potentially credibility — to helping them actually transact with customers.

Once the consumer clicks on the Call to Action button, they are taken from the Yelp listing directly to the business’s website where the transaction can be made, says Vivek Patel, the company’s vice president of business products. What’s more, the feature can promote actions beyond ecommerce. Businesses can also drive consumers to book an appointment or print a coupon, he says.

According to Yelp, Ticketmaster is already using the new feature on its Yelp pages, which highlight the more than 2,000 entertainment venues that sell its tickets.

The Call to Action feature works across all platforms, from desktop to mobile web browser to the Yelp mobile app. Yelp is selling the new feature to businesses as a form of advertising. Yelp’s local business advertising packages typically cost between $300 and $1,000 per month. Each business can customize the products or services it wants to promote.

Actor Reads Yelp Review Of Mexican Border That Inexplicably Fears …

Mystic Maggie — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:17:35 +0000

Yelp is way useful when you are trying to find cheap, satisfying grub, or chill vibes late at night, or are a bad date planner, or are just bad at life (like many Yelp users are).

One key hint that you are bad at life is when you use a thinly veiled identity to complain about a U.S.-Mexico border checkpoint incident on Yelp. Another sign that your life skills lack is when said review apropos of nada incorporates phrases like “mucho homoerotico” in your story about narc dogs scoping your contraband stash of border jerky.

But when a real live actor whose roles include “Praying Guy” on one episode of “Malcom In The Middle” and “Pork Pie” on “Person of Interest” reads that review melodramatically, it’s almost totally worth it.

Strangely, theifilestv, tried to put a newsy spin on this in the video’s YouTube description. That is probably about as effective as bitching about the border patrol on Yelp, but here’s an article they linked to, in case you’re planning on wasting taxpayer dollars by smuggling dimebags into Texas.

Also on HuffPost:

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Infinite Beard

Keeps going and going and going. (Via a href=”http://www.realthinktank.com/2009/12/infinite-beard-really-bad-idea.html” target=”_hplink”Real Think Tank/a)
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Good question. (Via a href=”http://www.funnyhairs.com/funny-facial-hair-03.html” target=”_hplink”Facial Hairs/a)
Whiskers

Just don’t pull them. (Via a href=”http://list25.com/top-25-craziest-beards-ever/2/” target=”_hplink”List 25/a)
The Bat-stache

By far the most beard-friendly superhero logo. (Via a href=”http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/sys9k/i_had_a_dreamit_is_now_reality_the_batstache/” target=”_hplink”reddit/a)
Z-Beard

Or an S-beard, from his perspective. (Via a href=”http://list25.com/top-25-craziest-beards-ever/” target=”_hplink”List 25/a)
Pac-Man Beard

Always chasing those pellets. (Via a href=”http://www.oddee.com/item_97821.aspx” target=”_hplink”Oddee/a)
The Half-Beard

Keep at it. The other half will grow in soon. (Via flickr: a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/scomedy/6142925081/” target=”_hplink”scomedy/a)
Brandenburg Gate Beard

One of the most famous beard landmarks. (Via a href=”http://roflstuffz.blogspot.com/2009/09/truth-or-fail-beard-trivia.html” target=”_hplink”Rofl Stuff/a)
Moustache Beard

A beard in the form of moustaches. Interesting. (Via a href=”http://www.funnyhairs.com/funny-moustache-03.html” target=”_hplink”Funny Hairs/a)
Beard Tattoo

Must take a long time to shave. (Via a href=”http://thevelvetrocket.com/2009/06/26/awesome-facial-hair-the-champions/” target=”_hplink”The Velvet Rocket/a)
Beard Rings

Larger and larger. (Via a href=”http://list25.com/top-25-craziest-beards-ever/” target=”_hplink”List 25/a)
The Monkey Tail

Dedication. That’s what it looks like. (Via a href=”http://www.geekologie.com/2011/04/all-the-rage-ridiculous-monkeytail-beard.php” target=”_hplink”Geekologie/a)
Stretched Beard

A lot of hair gel is necessary for this. (Via a href=”http://oddfunny.com/yet-another-crazy-beard-design/” target=”_hplink”OddFunny/a)

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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/19/actor-reads-yelp-mexican-border-video_n_3466931.html

Entelo, The Big Data Recruitment Platform Used By Box, Yelp And Square …

Mystic Maggie — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:55:54 +0000

In today’s tech industry, if you ask a startup founder to describe the biggest hurdles that stand between them and total world domination (or at least market penetration), it won’t be long before they begin grumbling about recruiting and the challenging process of hiring top-tier technical talent.

The demand is there, and it’s transparent. Every company is looking for great talent, job boards are littered with their listings. But, in recruiting, the supply side of the equation remains opaque. Recruiters still really have no idea whether or not someone is looking for a job — which may potentially explain the recruiting spam in your inbox. With so many companies having experienced this problem first hand, serial entrepreneur Jon Bischke and Squirl co-founder John McGrath co-founded Entelo to help mitigate your recruiting pains.

Launched in October last year, Entelo aims to assist companies of all sizes recruit technical talent by way of software that enables HR departments, recruiters and the like to leverage social data to search for and identify great candidates, even if they’re “passive,” meaning they have jobs but just may be looking for new opportunities.

Since October, Bischke tells us, the startup has seen more than 80 corporate customers adopt its recruiting software, including familiar names like Box, Groupon, Square and Yelp. To meet this demand, expand its team and expand its predictive analytics engine, Entelo is announcing today that it’s raised $3.5 million in a Series A financing round led by Battery Ventures and with participation from Menlo Ventures.

Entelo’s pitch to customers begins, of course, with the fact that it’s a card-carrying member of a new generation of startups hopping on the sexy bandwagon that is Big Data and data mining (“sexy” being a relative term, mind you). Who isn’t mining Big Data these days? All the cool kids are doing it: Waze, Google, Foursquare, Amazon, Yelp, Square, and so on.

Bischke and McGrath want to put a new spin on TalentBin and Gild and the like by allowing companies to join it in mining the Internetwebs for the best prospective talent. Said another way: Entelo has built a database of 10 million-plus potential job candidates, tracking the activity and status of each, like, say, their contributions to Github and StackOverflow, their location on Twitter or tweaks to their LinkedIn profile.

What differentiates Entelo, according to the co-founders, is that it’s essentially creating a more complete or robust resume than one would typically find on LinkedIn or Facebook. The data on our skills, job titles, achievements and projects is fragmented across a handful of sites, platforms and profiles. By pulling from those that are most relevant to highly-regarded technical talent, Entelo is betting that the resulting profile will hold more value to recruiters than the alternative.

Not only that, but the deeper its Big Data goes and the more it hones its predictive analytics, the more it understands the signals and footprints that developers who have just changed jobs or are clearly looking for jobs leave on the Web. And, as it goes, the more it understands those signals, the better it can predict which of those top-tier Facebook engineers are getting antsy.

Entelo not only wants to help companies identify passive candidates, but passive candidates that are more likely to be (actually) receptive to their recruiting efforts. The other potential use case Bischke says he’d like to see Entelo applied is in the huge back-log of resumes and applications companies keep on past candidates. While some of them were declined for a good reason, a number of them were probably great candidates, they just didn’t fit the bill for whatever reason.

Maybe that’s because they didn’t have enough experience. But, two years later, Bischke wants Entelo to be able to tell companies, “hey, you’d be an idiot if you didn’t take a second look at this woman.” Well, it probably won’t call them an idiot, but you get what I’m saying.

For more, find Entelo at home here.

ENTELO

Entelo allows recruiters to search for the best software engineers and designers across the social web.

With over 300 million social profiles in its database, powerful search to surface relevant candidates, and patent-pending technology to help discover candidates who may be open to new opportunities, Entelo dramatically improves your ability to find the right talent.

Entelo’s easy-to-use collaborative and social tools help to streamline the recruiting process and allow recruiters to spend more of their efforts proactively reaching out to tech…

→ Learn more

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Article source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/19/entelo-the-big-data-recruiting-platform-used-by-box-yelp-and-square-lands-3-5m-from-battery-and-menlo/

#Unplug: The 4 Biggest Temptations To Replug During Your Digital Detox

Mystic Maggie — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:58:54 +0000

This week, we’re helping you prepare for a digital detox. But before you #unplug, it’s best to prepare yourself for the questions typically answered by your device, the web, or an app: How will I get in touch with people if I don’t have my phone? What’s the best way to find a good restaurant without searching Yelp? Where the hell am I?

It’s at these moments that you will be tempted to use. The good news is that there’s a way to prepare for the urge to re-plug by identifying then remembering what, exactly, you want to #unplug from.

For his 25-day detox, comedian and author Baratunde Thurston didn’t want–or need–to abandon the Internet completely. Not every aspect of digital life was problematic. It’s the web, not, like, crack.

“I love, depend on, and frankly am made a better human being by the convenience of streaming movies, online food ordering, and Google Maps. I did not want to sever ties with friends; in fact, one of my goals was to strengthen relationships with pre-Facebook pals. I wanted to go to lunch, attend holiday parties, and host people for dinner. So I decided I could use my phone for personal calls and texts, and could schedule these encounters with Google Calendar.”

But social media (“including, but not limited to, seeing, reading, downloading, syncing, sending, submitting, posting, pinning, sharing, uploading, updating, commenting, tagging, rating, liking, loving, upvoting, starring, favoriting, bookmarking, plus-oneing, or re-anythinging”) and business activities were prohibited.

To decide what you want to take a break from, first take inventory. “Start by keeping a time long,” suggests Kimberly Young, founder and director at the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery.

“What are the activities you do, and when do you do them? Then once you get that inventory, that in and of itself will probably be enlightening. You can start prioritizing what you can cut out. What is it you really don’t need?”

Then, create a list of things you’d like to accomplish while away, as any mission is best executed when there are goals in mind. “I concocted a wish list of activity for my disconnected time,” says Thurston. “It was a pleasure to contemplate places to visit in New York, books to read, and people with whom I wanted to spend some quality time.”

Once you’ve decided what to give up, and what to do during your #unplug, it’s time to dive in. Here are some of the temptations you should be prepared to deal with, and how to go around them:

I’m Bored

Start journaling: “Use a pencil and a pad and write what you’re feeling. Take a moment to be introspective… why is this a problem? What’s really happening? Do you feel a loss of connection?” -Kimberly Young

Get a hobby (or a pet): “Commit to something outside the office, away from digital responsibilities. I haven’t had a hobby outside of my job for nearly 10 years. So I took a few drastic measures. First, I got a dog. Which I’ve always wanted, but I knew it would force me to get outside, walk and unplug. Second, I joined my co-worker Amy Azzarito in signing up for adventurous classes like Aerial Silks and skateboarding. It’s hard to work your iPhone when you’re dangling from the air.” -Grace Bonney, founder of Design*Sponge

“I have to get up, turn off the laptop and start playing with my cat. Just wander around and engage in some mindless cat-play.” -Alexis Ohanian, Reddit

“I usually hike, read a book, talk with friends. One day recharges me and feels like a two-week vacation.” -Jonathan D. Becher, chief marketing officer at SAP

“Reading non-fiction books. Even if I’m not capitvated by the story, I’m still learning something.” -Alexis Ohanian, Reddit

“Develop a habit of doodling instead of tapping or typing. -Dom Sagolla, co-creator of Twitter and chief community officer at Chaotic Moon

Make it impossible to plug in: “I pack up my computer, phone and iPad and charge them in my bedroom so I’m not tempted to use them.” -Grace Bonney, founder of Design*Sponge

“Intentionally seek places without wi-fi reception or even electricity, so you are not tempted to plug in.” -Yuli Ziv, founder and CEO of Style Coalition

The Online World Won’t Leave Me Alone

Turn off automatic sync on your phone: You can live without notifications from ESPN, Boing Boing, and Mafia Wars for a few days–a couple of weeks even!

Have a designated email checker: “To ensure an inbox-free vacation, my chief of staff would log in every few days to check that I didn’t miss anything urgent such as a family emergency, holiday party invite.” -Baratunde Thurston

Delay your emails: “I use Boomerang to delay the sending of emails so I can ensure I won’t get a response at a time that will force me to jump back into work.” -Grace Bonney, founder of Design*Sponge

“I’ve made it a policy not to reply to work emails outside of business hours. People are generally pretty annoyed at first, but they get over it. If it’s an emergency they learn to call, and apparently nothing is an emergency once you have to bother yourself with a phone call.” -Brian Voll

“Support the 24hr email response rule – for your own mental health and the health of your colleagues, clients and friends. Unless there is an emergency no email has to be replied to immediately.” -Yuli Ziv, founder and CEO of Style Coalition

I’m Lost

One of the main things we use our devices for is navigation. It’s easy to leave the house with nothing more than a general sense of where you’re headed, and look up the actual address when you get closer. But without a maps app, what’s a lost traveler to do? You have a few options:

Buy a map of your area: You should have one anyway. “I try to print out maps when we’re going places,” says Tiffany Shlain, digital filmmaker and founder of the Webby Awards.

Ask for directions: Overcome your fear of speaking to strangers and start asking for directions. Better yet, ask for recommendations on local places to frequent, like restaurants. Thurston did this:

“Since I couldn’t query my online network for local dining and culture options, my massage therapist became my recommendation engine. She told me of several restaurants and sites to check out. She transmitted this data by writing down the names on a piece of paper … For lunch I frequented Chuko, where the server recommended the pork-belly ramen. This was not the Yelp.com server, mind you, but a human server who proclaimed, ‘Try the pork-belly ramen.’ What an algorithm.”

Give your self a time cushion: If you get lost, you’ll have sufficient enough time to ask for help.

I Miss Sharing

Share with the people around you: During his detox, Thurston walked past a whole pig stuffed into a plastic bag on the sidewalk. “Twenty-four hours earlier, I would have Instagrammed this image, along with a suitably witty comment; instead I saved my snapshot for later viewing by people physically close enough to see my phone.”

“Whenever I get the urge to do something online, I find its counterpart in real life and do it. It’s all about the emotion and feeling you get from being ‘plugged.’ For example, if I felt like I need to post a photo on Instagram, I show it to my colleagues and friends. If I want to share info (personal or general knowledge), I call a friend or share it with colleagues. And so forth. Mainly, I find something around me that would give me a similar feeling and emotion to the one I get from the digital life or interactions.” -Alanoud AlMadhi, projects analyst

“I need to reming myself if I’m on my phone I might be missing my actual life. Look at the people right around me.” Gia Medeiros, marketing and organizational catalyst

Got any advice on how to #unplug? Tell us here, or tweet your thoughts to @FastCompany using the #unplug hashtag.

[Woman: Everett Collection via Shutterstock | Illustrations by Max-o-matic]

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Article source: http://www.fastcompany.com/3012707/unplug/unplug-the-4-biggest-temptations-to-replug-during-your-digital-detox

Be wary of pitches to speed your computer

Mystic Maggie — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:53:49 +0000

Q. There are several services advertised on TV that promise to clean your PC, making it faster. Are they to be trusted?

A. There are two types of computer repair services I recommend that you avoid – ones that promote their services through infomercial-type television or radio ads and those that call you on the phone, offering to solve all of your computer problems or even using scare tactics to trick you in to giving them control of your PC.

Many of these services are, at best, less-than-effective in making your PC run any better or, at worst, out-and-out scam artists.

The reality is that computers can slow down over time. There are free methods for addressing the more common problems – as outlined in the How-To Geek article “The Best Tips for Speeding Up Your Windows PC” at tinyurl.com/helplinetuneup.

If your computer is more than 5 years old, consider reloading the system software. Yes, it’s a hassle. But it often produces a dramatic improvement. And it’s free.

If you must pay someone to help you with your computer, find someone local whom you can trust. Use a service like yelp.com or local.yahoo.com to research local businesses that do computer work. These online resources provide user ratings and reviews to help you make your choice.

If this is a name brand computer like Dell or HP, you could use the system recovery disk and reload the original software.

This would overwrite your data and replace it with the software that was pre-loaded when your computer was new.

Q. I recently purchased and installed Windows 8 and all is working fine, but this software has an email program called Windows Live Mail that I don’t want to use. How do I uninstall it?

A. Windows Live Mail is one of several programs in an application suite called Windows Live Essentials.

Besides the Windows Live Mail program, it contains applications such as Windows Live Writer for blogging, Photo Gallery for photo editing and Movie Maker for video editing.

When you install one or more of these programs, what you are really installing is Windows Live Essentials and choosing the applications you want.

To remove Windows Live Mail, go to the Programs and Features Control Panel, look for Windows Live Essentials and double click it.

This will show you which of the applications you have installed and from there you can remove the ones you don’t want.

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Article source: http://www.chron.com/business/jaylee/article/Be-wary-of-pitches-to-speed-your-computer-4606211.php

Yelp Advertisers Now Able To Promote Transactions Directly From Yelp …

Mystic Maggie — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:09:02 +0000

Yelp announced a new Call to Action feature today that allows business owners to promote specific transactions directly on their Yelp business listing. In an attempt to increase potential revenue for advertisers, the new Call to Action feature enables a link within an advertiser’s business listing that will take consumers to the website where the transaction can be completed.

The sample below shows a ‘Reserve Now’ Call to Action button, but advertisers can choose whatever transaction they prefer.

According to the announcement, Ticketmaster was one of the first Yelp advertisers to take advantage of the Call to Action feature. The event ticketing company used the feature on more than 2,000 of its live entertainment venue Yelp listings, offering consumers the opportunity to go from the venue’s Yelp listing directly to buying tickets on Ticketmaster’s website.

With a reported 102 million monthly unique visitors and approximately 10 million monthly unique mobile devices using the Yelp app, Yelp says their users will be able to access the Call to Action feature via desktops and mobile devices.

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Mobile Marketing | Search Marketing | Yelp

About The Author: Amy Gesenhues is Third Door Media’s General Assignment Correspondent, and reports on the latest news and updates for Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs.com, SoftwareCEO.com, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy’s articles. See more articles by Amy Gesenhues

Connect with the author via:
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Article source: http://marketingland.com/yelp-advertisers-now-able-to-promote-transactions-directly-from-their-yelp-business-listing-48819

Compare CJ, LEO and Yelp Restaurant Scores

Mystic Maggie — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:40:33 +0000

The scores were taken from
·Garr’s HotBytes site
·Metromix’s compilation of Rosen’s best reviewed restaurants of 2011
·Yelp Louisville

Some scholarly notes:
·Rosen’s scale is 1-4 stars for the Louisville Courier-Journal; Metromix is 1-5 stars. But rather than adjust the scale or compute an equivalent score, Metromix just tags an empty blank star to the end of Rosen’s rating when posting his C-J review. Because that’s fair.
·The C-J’s firewall and inability to consistently include Rosen’s scores in the online versions of his reviews necessitated using the list of 2011 scores.
·While Garr’s scale is 1-100, you’d have to serve him a heaping pile of cow pies to get below a 75.

(Thanks to intern Casey for compiling the table.)

·All Week in Reviews [~ELOU~]
·All Yelp Coverage [~ELOU~]

[Photos: Rosen, Courtesy Facebook/Marty Rosen; Garr, CourtesyTop 100 Wines; Yelp, Courtesy Yelp]

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Article source: http://louisville.eater.com/archives/2013/06/18/compare-cj-leo-weekly-and-yelp-restaurant-scores.php

Yelp Adds Feature To Let Customers Pay Businesses

Mystic Maggie — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:11:01 +0000

Yelp announced the launch of a new feature for business owners today, which lets them encourage actual transactions from customers right from Yelp. Yelp says it will help business owners “close the loop” between customers discovering them on Yelp and making a purchase/taking an action.

It’s actually called the “Call to Action” feature, and is available to Yelp advertisers.

“It will allow biz owners to promote a desired transaction of their choosing directly on their Yelp business listing,” a spokesperson for Yelp tells WebProNews. “For example, Ticketmaster, one of the companies we’re launching with, has been using the feature on Yelp listings for over 2,000 live entertainment venues to guide consumers seamlessly from Yelp directly to the Ticketmaster page where they can purchase tickets.”

Earlier this month, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman spoke at the Le Web conference in London, and hinted at forthcoming e-commerce efforts, which would enable customers to make purchases from Yelp itself. It’s unclear if he was only talking about this, or if we will see additional features in the future. Either way, it’s a start.

“According to a recent BCG study, advertisers on Yelp report seeing an average of $23,000 in annual revenue from the site,” Yelp says in a blog post. “Yelp’s Call to Action feature, available now to Yelp advertisers, is designed to increase the revenue potential Yelp provides to business owners, with the ability to promote a specific action they’d like consumers to take. The Call to Action feature will take consumers seamlessly from a business’ Yelp listing to the the business’ own website to complete the transaction — be it scheduling an appointment, printing a coupon, buying tickets to see ‘N Sync (still holding out hope for a reunion tour!), or any other action a business wants to promote.”

Business owners who want to try out the new feature are advised to start at Yelp’s advertising page.

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Article source: http://www.webpronews.com/yelp-adds-feature-to-let-customers-pay-businesses-2013-06

Should You Buy LinkedIn, Facebook Or Yelp?

Mystic Maggie — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:02:22 +0000

If you’re like most people, you’re posting pictures, sharing videos and tweeting updates more today than ever before. All those posts, updates and shares are generating millions for social media companies, but does that mean you should buy shares?

While you can’t buy shares in Pinterest and Twitter yet, you can in Linkedin (LNKD), Facebook (FB) and Yelp (YELP).

But, is one of these three better than the others?

Consumer adoption of Internet social media has soared over the past few years, spreading far beyond teenagers to include parents and grandparents. Since 2010, the spread of social media has swelled membership for Internet companies including Linkedin, Facebook and Yelp.

But, which of these three has seen the biggest jump in users?

Linkedin’s user growth has climbed the most with monthly unique users up 142% since 2010. For comparison, Yelp and Facebook’s active monthly active users have grown 74% and 119%, respectively.

(click to enlarge)

User growth is fueling sales growth.

Without user growth, it’s hard to imagine Linkedin selling more premium subscriptions or Facebook selling more ads. In short, user growth provides insight into future revenue growth. As users have increased at all three companies, revenue has also climbed.

Linkedin’s faster membership growth generated the best revenue growth of the three. Since 2010, sales jumped 300% to $972 million in 2012. Facebook sales are 158% higher and Yelp’s are 191% higher. Arguably, there’s little to dislike in any of those numbers, especially considering percentage revenue growth has outpaced percentage monthly user growth at each company.

(click to enlarge)

Who is doing best at turning sales into profits?

Given user and revenue growth, it’s not shocking to learn Linkedin has the best track record of converting sales into profit.

In 2012, Linkedin net income hit $21.6 million, up 41% from 2010. Meanwhile, Facebook saw net income drop to $53 million and Yelp actually lost considerably more money in 2012 than 2010 — despite user and revenue growth.

(click to enlarge)

Of course, you may want to give Facebook and Yelp a free pass given income was impacted by IPOs last year. A similar drop in earnings can be seen in Linkedin’s numbers when it went public in 2011.

That said, Linkedin’s 22% net income drop in 2011 was far better than the 95% drop at Facebook in 2012. So, while you may want to give them a bit of a break, you shouldn’t necessarily give Facebook a free pass solely because of its IPO.

Looking at profits another way, earnings per share (“EPS”) have grown rapidly at Linkedin relative to Facebook and Yelp, and you’ll notice Linkedin still saw earnings per share growth in its IPO year, while Facebook didn’t.

(click to enlarge)

Can these companies still grow?

Cash fuels future revenue for high growth companies, including technology stocks. As a result, it’s helpful to look at how cash is growing or shrinking, because it shows how much fire power companies have to acquire new technology, build new facilities and hire talent.

Since 2010, the biggest cash growth has come at Facebook, which saw its cash hoard jump 439% to $9.6 billion. Yelp’s cash climbed 252% and Linkedin’s has increased 190%. Based on cash, all three companies appear to have plenty of flexibility to invest for the future thanks to their IPOs.

Given Linkedin’s cash dipped in the year following its IPO in 2011, it’s not a stretch to assume Facebook and Yelp will spend more this year too. So, keep an eye on their cash balances throughout this year.

(click to enlarge)

Linkedin comes out on top.

Linkedin has generated better user and revenue growth, and has been able to translate that into annual earnings growth in each of the past three years, something neither Facebook nor Yelp has accomplished.

Arguably, Facebook may trade higher as earnings, which are expected to bounce back to $0.57 this year, will be compared to anemic IPO year results.

And, Yelp is clearly the most speculative, given user and revenue growth haven’t produced earnings yet. Yelp investors will have to wait until 2014 for that happen, according to Wall Street analysts.

Going forward, you should keep a close eye on quarterly earnings reports, especially 10-Q regulatory filings. Those filings allow you to update changes in average monthly activity, revenues and profits and those changes may alert you if Facebook and Yelp start to execute more strongly relative to Linkedin.

But, for now Linkedin appears to offer the best track record of these three, and that may make it a better investment. If so, you may want to keep a close eye on shares this summer and take advantage of any summertime slowdown to add it to your portfolio.

Sources:

Linkedin 10-K

Facebook 10-K

Yelp 10-K

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, but may initiate a long position in LNKD over the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. (More…)

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Article source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1507722-should-you-buy-linkedin-facebook-or-yelp?source=google_news

Sin City? Blog says the title rightfully belongs to St. Louis, not Las Vegas

Mystic Maggie — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:08:32 +0000

Dan Gill / The New York Times

The Gateway Arch overlooks the Mississippi River and downtown St. Louis, Mo., on Aug. 20, 2010.

By Ed Komenda (contact)

Tuesday, June 18, 2013 | 2 a.m.

Las Vegas newbies often call this neon paradise by its clichéd nickname.

But how does Sin City stack up against debauchery in other major cities?

Bloggers at Movoto, a real estate firm with licensed brokerages in more than 30 states, contend Las Vegas is no longer the baddest place between the coasts. On their list of the most sinful major U.S. cities, Las Vegas ranked only as No. 10. St. Louis tops American cities when it comes to residents indulging in the seven deadly sins described in the Bible, according to Movoto.

Here’s Movoto’s list of most sinful cities:

1. St. Louis

2. Orlando, Fla.

3. Minneapolis

4. Pittsburgh

5. Milwaukee

6. Cincinnati

7. Miami

8. Buffalo, N.Y.

9. Detroit

10. Las Vegas

The site built its study on city data concerning pride, lust, greed, wrath, envy, gluttony and sloth. Movoto then ranked the data from the 95 largest cities in the country to come up with its top 10.

Here’s a look at how cities ranked in each individual “sin” category:

Leila Navidi

Lust (Based on strip clubs per capita)

North Las Vegas ranked first in lust. That’s where there is one strip club for every 2,808 residents. Las Vegas ranked second with one strip club for every 3,406 people. Scottsdale, Ariz., took third with one strip club for every 4,511 residents.
Suzanne DeChillo / The New York Times

Pride (Based on cosmetic surgeons per capita)

It seems people love to look good in Scottsdale, where there’s one cosmetic surgeon for every 1,812 people, according to data pulled from yelp.com. Irvine, Calif., took second with one surgeon per every 1,827 residents. Anaheim, Calif., rounded out the list.
Steve Marcus

Wrath (Based on violent crime per 1,000 residents)

Detroit blew away the competition with 24 violent crimes per year for every 1,000 residents. St. Louis took second with 20 while Memphis, Tenn., and Oakland, Calif., logged 16 apiece.
Steve Marcus

Envy (Based on thefts per year, per 1,000 residents)

Turns out Honolulu is quite green beyond its palm trees. Every year, there are about 76 reported thefts per 1,000 residents. That’s 11 more than St. Louis, where 65 thefts are reported per every 1,000 people.
Cydney Cappello

Greed (Based on percentage of disposable income given to charity each year)

When it comes to charity, don’t count on Laredo, Texas, where residents report only giving 2.8 percent of their disposable income to charity every year. Residents in Reno gave a bit more, with 3.3 percent.
Anthony Devlin/PA Wire URN:16494894 / AP

Gluttony (Based on percentage of obese residents)

Detroit took another title when Movoto found that 34 percent of that city residents were obese. Tulsa, Okla., came close with 33.9 percent, and Memphis took third at 33.8 percent.
Steve Marcus

Sloth (Based on percentage of physically inactive residents)

Data from the federal Centers for Disease Control showed 32.4 percent of Tulsa’s residents were considered “inactive.” Thirty percent of residents in Minneapolis were logged as inactive while St. Louis and Orlando tied at 28.8 percent.

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Article source: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/jun/18/sin-city-blog-says-title-rightfully-belongs-st-lou/

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Sin City? Blog says the title rightfully belongs to St. Louis, not Las Vegas

Lust (Based on strip clubs per capita)

Pride (Based on cosmetic surgeons per capita)

Wrath (Based on violent crime per 1,000 residents)

Envy (Based on thefts per year, per 1,000 residents)

Greed (Based on percentage of disposable income given to charity each year)

Gluttony (Based on percentage of obese residents)

Sloth (Based on percentage of physically inactive residents)