Imagine an internet phone book with customer reviews of local Lake County businesses. Kind of like Amazon.com product reviews, but tailored for Lake County businesses.
You can tell Lake County businesses are behind the technology bandwagon when most restaurants, etc. have not listed themselves on Yelp.com
Yelp is a major player in rating eating, entertainment & business locations in major cities. So, the nearest big cities to Lake County are Tampa or Orlando. If you select Orlando, it shows
lists of the top user rated eating and playing places, WITH a map to show where they are.
But, I thought there weren't any listings for Lake County. But I was wrong - it just took a little experimenting. I went to a list of top rated restaurants in Orlando, and it showed a map with numbered pointers for each rated business. And, if I "dragged" the map so it showed the Triangle area of Lake County, the map revised its ratings pointers and showed top rated restaurants in that area. But, there were only a few. And, there wasn't ONE tire store listed for the area (take that, Ralph).
For instance, here is a link where I went to the top spots in Orlando, then dragged the map to show Lake County, and only about 10 businesses are listed with Yelp ratings. We see Mt. Dora's Wine Den and Frosty Mug, but not ONE of those nifty restaurants in Tavares.
So, if you have a local business - even a service business - you want to create a listing and get customers to post ratings so all those snowbirds can find you (if they know about Yelp).
And, as a user, you can create a profile for a local business, or write reviews of any business already on yelp.com . Just think, you can say what you think about that Dentist that makes you wait two months for a follow up appointment after they charged you $180 for an initial diagnosis.
So, read some of the reviews on Orlando businesses, then add your local Lake County favorites to Yelp.com .
vj
