Powering the local review engine at Yelp and Google: intensive and extensive approaches to crowdsourcing spatial data

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12 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper explores how two major location-based services in the United States, Yelp and Google Maps, use volunteer top-contributor programmes to ensure access to reliable spatial data. Through the Elite Squad programme, paid Yelp staff take an active curatorial role growing the company’s reviewer base in select urban regions in North America. Google’s Local Guides programme uses an extensive, self-service model to collect data on a global scale. Both companies enrol and motivate users in ways that present unpaid review labour as affirming, with emphases that reflect their scalar strategies: Yelp stressing tight-knit sociality and Google global altruism.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1878-1889
Number of pages12
JournalRegional Studies
Volume55
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Environmental Science
  • General Social Sciences

Keywords

  • crowdsourcing
  • digital labour
  • local reviews
  • location-based services
  • spatial data
  • user-generated content

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