Yet a couple of Google engineers believed that there was a more efficient and more pleasant way to sift through all of the options these mobile applications presented. So with their famous 20 percent time, they developed a new application for the Google Android mobile platform: Places Directory. Our first impression: it's Google's version of Yelp, running on Android.
Places Directory works just like as it sounds: it's a directory of nearby places, based on your phone's current location. You can browse by category (hotels, banks, barber shops, etc.), see their distance from you, and pull up the location on Google Maps. In addition, when you tap on a location, you will pull up reviews (which seem to be aggregated from sources like Citysearch) and local information.
Places Directory isn't all that revolutionary - as we stated before, there are many apps that do the same thing. The interface is just like the Yelp application, even if Google doesn't want to admit it. This begs the question: is Google trying to make a play for the Yelp-dominated market of local search and reviews? After all, Google Maps has offered the ability to review locations for the longest time, and Places Directory brings it all together.