Brad Plumer reports on a new paper (pdf) finding that Yelp is destabilizing the chain restaurant business. Julian Sanchez detects a larger trend:
Imagine, then, what effect it might have if, five or ten years hence … for nearly any product consumers encountered, some kind of aggregate rating—based on whatever criteria the individual has determined are most important—would simply appear, with minimal effort. Simply looking at an aisle of products—or even passing shops on the street—I might effortlessly learn which were deemed most satisfactory by people with tastes similar to mine. … With such information more directly available, marketing would become far less relevant to the buyer—and a far less worthwhile investment for the producer.
The Dish 