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Update: Reports now say that Yelp has backed out of the deal.

Original Article: Multiple reports say that Google is in negotiations to acquire Yelp, a site that caters to reviews of local businesses. Mike Arrington claims to have confirmed this with "multiple sources," and says the price is at least $500 million.

Yelp has an interesting page in which it squashes 9 "myths" about the service. Yelp says you don't have to buy advertising to rank highly in Yelp search results, and that the only paid reviews are in clearly-marked ad form. Apparently a common myth is that Yelp reviewers are all young, and in high school or college.

"In January 2009, 94% of Yelp reviewers were over 23 years old," says Yelp. "This means about 6% of reviewers fall into that 'high school or college age' category."



Yelp.com had over 26 million unique visitors in the US in November. According to Yelp, people have  written over 8 million local reviews, with over 85% of them rating a business 3 stars or higher.

Let's remember that nothing is final yet, and there is still a possibility that Google will not acquire Yelp. According to Arrington, one source says the deal is 80% likely. Take that as you will.

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