Google's Hotpot Joins the Local Recommendation Crowd

Google entered the local recommendation fray yesterday with the launch of Hotpot, and despite what the name implies, it’s not just for Chinese restaurants. Hotpot combines the 50 million listings in Google Places with user ratings and personalized recommendations, and it has the advantage of being attached to the world’s largest search engine–but it’s late to the game, and Yelp is already the dominant player, having amassed a huge database of reviews.