Yokld.com

Yokl’d.com is a "Best Of" local business ranking social platform that is 100% compiled and commented on by users. The idea is simple - the more times a business gets "Yokl’d" (voted) the higher in the rankings it will be listed.

Why would you use Yokl’d?

• Impress others by consistently picking great restaurants, hotels, spas, etc.
• Share local knowledge with a social network of friends, family and business associates
• Discover the best local businesses recommended and ranked by the user community
• Benefit from trusted friend’s personal pages to see what they recommend
• Never get lost -- detailed maps pinpoint each location

• Joel Dow - Technical and Site Development
  jdow@yokld.com
• Jim Glynn – Marketing and Sales
  jglynn@yokld.com
• Jay Mallinckrodt – Marketing and Site Development
  jmallinckrodt@yokld.com

The Yokld.com Internet platform allows for local businesses to be submitted to Yokld.com by any registered user.  Then using a simple 1-Click recommendation or “Yokl’d” approach all registered users can provide their opinions based on experiences and preferences for that particular local business.  If the business rocks and gets “Yokl’d” enough it will be promoted to the front page of its location, category, and subcategory.  Positive and Negative user generated reviews/comments can also be submit with each local business.  To ensure usefulness of comments users will also have the ability to “Yokl’d” them so that the community can help bring the most useful comments for the benefit of the community.  

In order for Yokl’d to be successful, which includes growing a large user base and robust content, Yokl’d needs a dedicated group of people to both contribute content, rank content, and use the content for their benefit.  By harnessing the collective intelligence of the users to provide this information all parties can benefit.  Consumers benefit when they have information regarding businesses that are rising (cream rises to the top) and they are equipped with better information regarding their buying and shopping options.  Business owner’s benefit when they provide a superior product or service they will be recognized and their business will move up the rankings and users therefore make more visits. 

While there are many sources to obtain local business information none of these existing solutions meet needs that we see in the marketplace:

• The Yellow Pages only provides alphabetical lists or listings differentiated by the size of an advertisement. Therefore, the only way for a user to make a distinction is through the amount of money spent by a particular company. This does not assist in discriminating good experiences from bad.
• Professional newspapers and magazine critics have unique tastes and biases that sometimes significantly differ from a customer’s point of view.
• Search engine results simply provide electronic Yellow Pages or paid placement ads. Again, this information doesn’t help separate the great from the mediocre.
• Local search sites like CitySearch and Yelp! provide user generated content for local businesses using a controversial five-star rating system. Users debate the use of the five-star rating because people within the general population have very different tastes. This ranking system provides no way to tell if a group of people ranking a business shares the same tastes as a specific user.