Internet, Local | featured news

YelpInc., the online review website, has picked Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. to lead an initial public offering that could value the company at up to $2 billion, according to people familiar with the plans. Yelp intends to file its IPO plans publicly within the next few weeks, said one person familiar with the matter. It's aiming to complete the sale in the first quarter, though timing may change with market conditions, the person said.

Google Inc. announced Thursday that it has acquired Zagat Survey LLC, the restaurant review and ratings service that is a go-to source for foodies everywhere.

Are social sites like Reddit, Tumblr and YouTube communities that are just as worthy of news coverage as local towns? If so what would a community newspaper covering these disparate and little-understood groups of people look like? A new news site, the Daily Dot, attempts to answer that question.

Since last year, TripAdvisor, Yelp and Citysearch—sites with local-business reviews generated by their visitors—have complained Google effectively stole their content and posted it on Google's own pages. Google Places competes with those sites and provides information on millions of restaurants, hotels and other businesses, including store hours, location and photos.