San Diego, CA-based MojoPages launched today. If you work at Yelp you’re probably thinking, “They totally ripped us off.” But the truth probably is MojoPages did a survey of what they considered to be compelling elements from a range of sites, including Yelp, and tried to incorporate them into a single package.
I’ve written more at SEL. But here are some challenges:
- Competing in a crowded market against Yahoo, Google, Yelp, Ask/Citysearch, Kudzu, Angie’s List, Judy’s Book, Backfence, Boorah and InsiderPages, etc.
- Rolling out and getting traction in 20 or more markets nationally
- Selling advertising to local businesses (many have tried and failed)
It is possible that MojoPages will be able to successfully penetrate a number of markets, sufficient to gain the interest of a buyer who wants a social network and other local content. And there are enough larger players that this isn’t completely misguided.
What do others think of the site and its prospects?
Screenwerk 
February 21, 2007 at 4:02 pm
I was instantly hit with gradient after gradient after gradient 🙂
Quick thoughts:
1. Can’t see what it does that Yelp doesn’t do (other than video)
2. Design feels cluttered (likely due to seventeen gradient effects on one page)
3. Search results took 13 seconds to show up
4. Search for ‘mcdonalds’ at NY,NY you don’t really get the fast food joint. Search for “mcdonald’s” and you do … but you see an addslashes bug (\’) in the title.
5. On the search results page, on teh right menu, were ‘website links’. None of them worked.
6. Search results are POST instead of GET. Ugh nothing more annoying in the world.
7. Data coverage needs some work – who is their source? Someone even mentioned it in their Community > Talk section.
Not impressed right now. Some obvious QA holes.
March 23, 2007 at 1:00 am
“Is it possible that Mojo will be able to successfully penetrate a number of markets, sufficient to gain the interest of a buyer who wants a social network and other local content?”
Geez, I highly doubt it — although city search could always surprise us I guess
Clearly they spent a fair amount of time studying Kudzu.com and Yelp. But, if no one visits, does it really matter?
March 23, 2007 at 1:07 am
Sorry to hijack, but has anyone actually looked at Kudzu outside of Atlanta?
Not impressive.
March 23, 2007 at 5:23 am
As far as reviews everyone tends to be a restaurant critic. Most of the time people comment when things go wrong. There’s always an exception to every rule. With that said, statistically 48% of people are looking for any business when using a directory. 1) Because they are new to town 2) Have a immediate dilemma 3) Unhappy with anther business 4) One time purchase for a product or service 5) Tire kickers & window shoppers
March 23, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Thanks, Ahmed.
Agreed. Kudzu.com in Atlanta is the standard. And the other marketrs are not there yet.
But it does have 3,000 small business customers and 20,000 consumer reviews in mojo’s home market of San Diego.
More impressive than you think. Don’t know if you’ve ever tried it.
March 23, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Ed – I simply reviewed the site from a technical usefulness POV, and I gave you guys a freebie list of 7 things that you need to improve on. And it took me ~10 minutes to find it.
I’m just a critical ass 🙂