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I yelp occasionally, and my boyfriend is way more into it than me....he's "Elite." It's really useful for finding new restaurants, hair salons, etc. Especially if you're new to a town. But you have to take every review with a grain of salt. For instance, we love "true" Italian pizza, and we've found that all of the places that Yelpers hate are probably ones we'd love.

There is also this whole social/happy hour/hang out part of it that I have yet to experience. It seems like a really great, low key way to meet new people who share similar interests.

Lord I love Yelp. It's a wonderful resource, at least in the Bay Area, but be careful, it's addicting...

Just started getting into it. When your review is marked "cool" or "useful" or "funny," you just want to do it more.

I Yelp! It's my go-to source for pretty much everything in Chicago. The reviews tend to be decently written and include the kind of information food write-ups in newspapers often lack -- how noisy it is, whether parking is doable, the size of the menu, etc. It's also a great resource for other goods and services -- I've used it to find a moving company and a new hairstylist in the last month. The only downside -- and this can be found on any food forum -- is that there is a bit of groupthink going on. The people who spend all their time reviewing often go out together, probably because they have similar tastes. But even with the mild groupthink, it's a fantastic resource.

I yelp, but not as much as I used to. I got to be an Elite pretty quickly, all it takes (in Seattle, at least) is >30 reviews and a little talking on the boards. I've been turned off a little lately, as the regulars on there have formed a little club and treat the site like their own bulletin board.

I'm over it... it's gotten to have too many whinney people on there complaining about everything....

"the waiterss looked at me the funny..."
(the reality: she's actually cross eyed)
"the bar tender forgot the extra olive I requested"
(the reality: the bar was packed and they were short staffed and you were slurring your words)
"I ordered a half soy, half decaf, doppio, tall latte with extra foam and a caramel swirl and the barista forgot to smile when he handed it over!"
(after taking 20 minutes to order there were 40 pissed off people in line after you and the guy was trying to work as quickly as he possibly could to placate all the other annoyed customers)

When I first moved to Phoenix, there were very few Yelpers there, so it was exciting to document our local scene. I'm closing in on 400 reviews but didn't apply for Elite because my handle isn't my real name and my official photo is one of my cats -- and I like it that way. I don't Yelp anything my employer invests in or is likely to invest in, but I suppose I may eventually have to stop entirely.

Yelp is a great resource when traveling; just be careful to size up the reviewers to see if they're people whose tastes you'd probably trust in real life.