User:ChoChrissy/My sandbox

Technological Infrastructure
Yelp.com is a website that is operated by the company Yelp, Inc. It is a social networking, user review and local search website. Yelp was founded in 2004 and its purpose is to help people find great local businesses like spas and restaurants. Approximately 61 million people visited Yelp.com in 2011. Users of Yelp.com, often called Yelpers, can find almost 22 million local reviews, events, and lists and can talk with other users. Business owners and managers can setup free accounts on Yelp.com to advertise their businesses. Through business owners, Yelp makes money simply by labeling ads around the business’ site. Yelp.com uses an algorithm with an automated filter which targets suspicious reviews and suppresses a small portion of the reviews. There are many ways to access Yelp.com such as through smartphones like iPhones, Androids and BlackBerrys and on any devise that can access the Internet. For users’ convenience, Yelp updates weekly local business openings and other events. It is a social networking because different users from different places share information through Yelp.com.
 * Tier diagram

Presentation

 * This is the level that is in direct contact with the user. Using HTML, the information about the locations is displayed and the functions are used by the user to help communicate with the other tiers to help the user find the information that the user wants.  This tier communicates with the other tiers by inputting queries in the search bar and displaying output results from the Data tier.  This is an example of the browser/client communicating with the websites server.

Processing

 * The Processing Tier is a part of the server of Yelp.com. On this level, there are many algorithms used to filter and sort the queries from the users and display the results from the databases. This tier is where a lot of the work takes place to process the user’s query and search the database to display results for the user.

Data

 * This level is the level farthest away from the user. This is also a part of the Yelp.com server.  The Data Tier houses the database which stores all of the information being inputted and outputted on the site.  Comments and reviews are a examples of information that is stored in the database.

What is a function?
A function is an action that a person, device or company takes to produce results. For example, Yelp.com is divided into several categories of function which people use to put queries and get results of what they want to know.These are the most important functions because Yelp.com is all about these functions. When people put queries, Yelp organizes information, matches them to queries and show users the results by using an algorithm of index or sequence. Users search queries through search bar, and for more information, they message to each other.

About Me
This section gives Yelp users the ability to post personal information and share it with others. It’s Yelp’s attempt at social networking. Users can create their own profiles and post personal pictures. It also shows the user's recent reviews that they wrote for businesses. The algorithm behind this section is basically a tuned down version of Facebook. There are attributes that users can fill with unlimited value options. This section mainly uses links to navigate to different portions of information.

Write a Review
In Yelp you are able to write a review about a local business. When you intend to write a review in Yelp you first have to search the business by typing in its name and the city its located in. Then you should select the business from the results page. Then you click write review. After clicking write review you rate it 1 to 5 stars, then proceed to write the review. After, the review is written you click post to post the review to help others learn about this business. Algorithms behind this feature include the search and select algorithm as well as a posting algorithm. This function uses different organizational structures. It uses search boxes as displays, then moves to a displayed index, and then a text box display.

Messaging
Users use the messaging system to interact and communicate with other users. Yelp’s messaging system is similar to Facebook’s messaging system. Users have their own private “inboxes”, and “sent boxes” where they can see all the communication they had with others. They can compose a message simply by pressing “Compose” and fill out the “To”, “Subject” and “Message” boxes. Yelp’s algorithm in messaging system is listing recent messages on the top of the box. The messaging uses links which users click inbox, current page shows inbox page. Also, it uses sequence which lists new messages on the top and old ones on the bottom. The type of the messaging system the Yelp.com uses is asynchronize because it is not a real time conversation among users but it is more like an e-mail. This messaging system also has an input boxes where the user has the freedom to write what they want. Also there is an action control button to let the server know where to send this information.

Find Review
Yelp.com’s “Find Review” function rates the top restaurants, spas, shops, and other stores based on the reviews of consumers. It helps the user find what they are looking for whether it is a good restaurant or a pet store. When you click on the “Find Review” tab from the Yelp.com homepage, you will be brought to a page that separates the locations into six main categories (types): restaurants, shopping, nightlife, beauty and spa, active life and coffee and tea. Within each of these categories, Yelp.com lists the locations in a sequence based on the top ratings from thousands of reviews. Each of the categories, types and items are hyperlinked to bring you to the pages that describe the items, types and categories in more depth. The “Find Review” function has multiple algorithms. Working from the big picture in, Yelp.com starts by asking where you are, or use a GPS signal to find you so they can find what places you are asking for and narrows your search to places that are close to you. This would require a sort of location algorithm. It then separates each location by what sort of services they provide. This would require a categorization algorithm. Within each category, the restaurants, stores and other locations are listed by popularity. They find what places are popular with a rating system out of five stars; this information is given by the people who write the reviews. This uses an algorithm that ranks the locations based on popularity. This function uses sequences, links and a hierarchy. The sequences are the categories that are displayed by how the creators at Yelp.com want the user to see them. The types under the categories are listed by popularity. The links are the ads on the sides of the page. When the user clicks on the ads, they will be taken to another site. Each category, type and item are hyperlinked and will take you to a page that describes the specific category, type or item in more detail. When you click on the links of the types and items, there is a hierarchy displayed at the top that lists “San Francisco > Active Life > Diving.”

Search Box
When users want to see the reviews or address or if users want to know more information about a specific place, users can search for it in the search box. Users can be specific by typing in the specific name or users can type a more general term like “restaurant” or “barber shop” and the results get back to you with the best match results to your search. Users get to choose how they want their results page to look either by checking the “best match” box or “highest rated” box where you’ll have the highest rated places on top or “most reviewed” where on the top of the results, you’ll get the place with the most reviews. There are other optional boxes to check such as the “price”, “distance”, “features”, etc. Because users get to choose how they want their search results to be like, it’s not really considered an index since the results aren’t in alphabetical or numerical order.

Information Infrastructure
Information types are hubs of item, attributes, and values. What is an item? An item is specific example of type. For example, person is type and item of a person is you, your friend, your TA or your professor. What is an attribute? An attribute is name, gender or address. What is a value? A value is specific example of attribute. Forinstance for name, "Chrissy" is value of an attribute and "name" is an attribute of an item, me. Values can be under many attributes but an attribute can only have one value.

Shopping

 * Type: Department Store
 * Item: Bloomingdale’s
 * Attributes: Hours, Price Range, Accepts Credit Cards, Parking.
 * Values: Mon-Sat 9:30 am-9 pm Sun 10 am-7 pm, $$$, Yes, Garage.
 * Relationship between types: bridal, outlet stores, pawn shops, toy stores.

Restaurants

 * Type: Greek
 * Item: "Kokkari Estiatorio"
 * Attributes: Hours, attire, price, etc.
 * Values: Mon-Fri 11:30 am - 2:30 pm, dressy, $$$, etc.
 * Realtionships between types: greek food, chinese food, burgers, etc.

Spas

 * Type: Day Spas
 * Item: Glee Day Spa
 * Attributes: Hours, price, etc.
 * Values: Mon - Sun 10 AM - 8 PM, Price: Inexpensive, moderate
 * Relationships between types: Day Spas, Massage, Skin Care, Nail Salons

Coffee Shop

 * Type:Franchise
 * Item: "Philz Coffee"
 * Attributes: Address, Hours, & Parking
 * Values:748 Van Ness Ave San Francisco, CA 94102, Mon-Fri 6 am - 8:30 pm/Sat-Sun 6:30 am - 8 pm, Street
 * Relationships between types:Franchise, Personal coffeeshops

Barber Shops

 * Type: Salon
 * Item: Red Chair Salon
 * Attributes: Address, Hours
 * Values: 324 15th Ave E, Seattle WA, 9:00am-5:00pm
 * Relationship between types: Barbers, Salons, Hairdressers

Organizational Structures
Hierarchy: It is a big table of contents. At the top of the homepage of Yelp.com, there is a navigation bar that acts like a table of contents. When the user clicks on the different functions of the navigation bar, it lists out the types and items that are found under the category from the original function. Yelp.com uses site map deliverable which is hieratical view of how the website looks such as table contents. Hierarchy is a tree and there are branches under branches. For example, Yelp.com has a navigation bar with contents of functions such as "About me", "Write a review", "Messaging", "Find a review" and "Events." If the user clicks one of these categories, the user will see a different web page and there also can be different categories users can choose to find their queries.

Index: Index is a list of alphabetized words. When the user is searching for a restaurant, the user will click on the restaurant link that will take the user to the restaurant category’s page. On this page there is a list of all the types of restaurants that is alphabetized.

Link: Links in Yelp.com are ads on the site. On almost every page on Yelp.com, there are ads on the sides of each page.If the user clicks on one of the ads, it will take the user to another site that the ad is advertising for.

Sequence: One of the major functions in Yelp.com, events are an example of sequence. The major events are listed by dates. On the Events page, there is a list of events that is constantly updated and is listed by the time that it is updated. The event is higher up on the list if the event is added more recently.

Sequence: Another example of sequence is also from Events page. On the Events page, there is a list of popular events that are found locally to where you are. The events are listed by how many other users are interested in the certain event. The first event on the list has the most people interested and the events popularity regresses