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You know nothing John Snow (FB and YELP)

A few weeks ago there were several IBC blog posts bashing FB and YELP. I should know, I wrote several of them.

Look at them now. FB is up more than 20% since June 1. YELP up for 50% gain.

RaginCajun and ChessNWine opened and closed FB positions. IBC blamed FB for everything from egregious stock losses to impotence. There was no more unpopular stock than FB at ~$26.

Let’s be honest, this is a Costanza market. When there is that much hate for a stock step back, clear your mind and consider: is this a buying opportunity? Buying the blood would have been extremely profitable here.

Never catch a falling knife you say? Well, I think these stocks were hammered on sentiment. Moods change faster than fundamentals. Negative news can fade quickly. Long term I maintain FB and YELP are not buys for my style, but looking back I can see where I missed a huge opportunity.

Hindsight is 20/20, but sometimes history repeats itself. If you fail to see that pattern repeatedly you are not learning.

Buying those stocks at the same time I penned missives outlining their flaws would have been hard. But there are times that’s exactly the right thing to do.

Sometimes we’re all John Snows in this market.

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Stick a Fork in $YELP

Google just added a “Local” section to Google+.

LOL NO ONE USES GOOGLE+ you say?

Partially true. Today. But the people that matter do (the early adopters), and the rest will follow. Google has a long term plan to organize the world’s information. Ever use their search? They seem to be doing a pretty good job of it so far.

As far as users, the yardstick by which these services are measured, Google reviews are already integrated into Google Maps, which people use everywhere. Works great on mobile.

(EDIT: Just found out GOOG bought Zagat. I did not know this and so changes some of the angle of the rest of this post, but I have not edited anything from the original)

YELP put up a fight when Google began integrating YELP reviews on Google services. I am not sure if that’s still being done, but if it is and I were YELP I would encourage it…hoping one day I could marry my baseborn children to the regal house of Google (no Lannister).

Sure, YELP has mobile apps. But YELP is a one trick pony while Google + is a darkhorse. The kind of horse that sneaks up in the middle of the night and violently horsesexes other Internet companies.

The Social Media party is over. There will be contraction. Labeling yourself as “Social Media” is the 2012 equivalent of being a dot com. Social Media will no longer be a special term, it will be part of life and any added value will disappear. The bloom is off the rose.

The Internet is king. User experience is king (no AAPL). Access anywhere is king. Google is all these things. All hail the King.

YELP won’t die today, but the writing is on the wall. If they are smart they’ll be YouTube and cash out so they can smoke Rick Ross blunts rolled from the flayed skin of their competitors. Hopefully, YELP won’t channel GRPN who has teetered from one near death experience to another a la Gary Busey.

I’m not a buyer based on a buyout, but I think it’s YELP’s best future hope for investors and their own longevity to be an arrow in Google’s quiver.

The time is now for YELP to make that move.

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