Geolocation, we’re told, is the future of social communication. But for anyone in Ireland who has tried using Foursquare, the location app that shares where you are with friends, it has likely been an enormous disappointment. Once you get past the novelty factor, the persistent questioning of non-smartphone friends (“what’s the point of it?”) begins to make a lot of sense. After all, there really isn’t even that much of a user base. Getting right to the point, Foursquare has no purpose in this country. There are no discounts for mayorships, and no local development officers to build the community. And your friends probably aren’t getting that much value out of knowing you moved from work to home. It’s a colossal waste of time.

But there is a geolocation service that offers real value to the end user, has a dedicated user base, and is tons of fun to use. And it’s the mobile version of the popular Yelp social reviews site.

This service provides value to the user by showing them top-rated cafes, bars etc nearby, nails the social element with weekly newsletters, check-ins and and tips/comments, and, best of all, is making a genuine effort with real live people to build a community. Which knocks the competition out of the park.

I singed up to Yelp on the iPhone after a quick Google search for a good bike shop in Dublin yielded user reviews. Convinced that our tiny nation wouldn’t have any real content, I downloaded the mobile app to prove myself right. I wasn’t right. Within a minute I had read multiple user reviews of several nearby bicycle shops, and decided to try one I had never seen before (which was excellent, by the way).

There is a good sizeable chunk of content there, and it’s growing by the day. A lot of it is powered by a small group of people with a prolific output, but that’s ok: it means that the content is there for the new user to gain value from the service. Which is precisely what a lot of other services that launch in Ireland lack. Perhaps- and this might be crazy- perhaps there is an actual community officer for Dublin/Ireland? Madness, surely?

No. A few days later, I was pleasantly surprised to find this message in my e-mail inbox:

Hi Dave,

I wanted to drop you a quick note and introduce myself. I’m the Community Manager for Dublin. Just wanted to say hello!

Glad to see that you have signed up to the fun! I hope you join your fellow Dublin Yelpers in sharing opinions on the local places you love, hate, need so badly you would run red lights to get to, or can’t stand so much you would rather eat hot coals than step foot in again.

All of your diverse opinions help make up The Weekly Yelp (http://www.yelp.ie/weekly), our newsletter that highlights current happenings in and around Dublin. Each week I comb the site to find the most useful, funny, and cool reviews that give a local’s perspective on where to spend your time, money and daily caloric intake…

Finally. Someone gets it. For these types of services to work, there needs to be a person or team responsible for the growth of content in an area. That was always Foursquare’s problem. The aforementioned Annie L is one of the most prolific users on Yelp Dublin, and from what I can see she’s constantly replying to user queries in the talk pages (which are chat areas with questions about the city). Hell, that same e-mail mentioned that “elite” contributors get invited to beer pong games as a reward.

This approach deserves to get noticed. Finally, someone is showing little old Dublin a little attention. And this is god damn useful. Standing on Fishamble St and wondering where you should grab a coffee with that old friend you just bumped into? Sorted. I’d love to see this grow more and justify the company’s decision to invest in Dublin.

You’ll find me on Yelp as davemolloy, and should sign up yourself here! Now, I must go and review my local pub.

Posted by Dave Molloy in •Business •Tech

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