

Opez (YC S11) Is Yelp Meets Facebook, For Service Professionals - csmajorfive
http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/11/yc-backed-opez-is-yelp-meets-facebook-for-service-professionals/

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sgrove
I have a couple of hair-stylist friends who've been dying for this kind of
service - there's almost a kind of lock-in with the salon that they work out
of, where changing causes them a great deal of frustration. Having a direct
line to the service provider would save them (and their clients) a ton of
hassle, and also even up the power-balance. Everyone wins!

I'm personally a little bit jealous about Opez though - building a product by
establishing relationships to the best bartenders, servers, etc.? Must be
awesome :)

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pbreit
<http://www.styleseat.com/> recently launched but more of a boooking tool.

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markbao
I hate this title. Does "Yelp meets Facebook" really tell you more than
describing the service?

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dglassan
I came here to say the same thing...Is this a social network for business
reviews? Because that's all I'm getting from this title and that doesn't sound
very enticing to me.

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christonog
If you really wanted to follow your favorite service provider, wouldn't you
just friend them on facebook or follow them on twitter? The relationship is
already there, so wouldn't reviews be unnecessary?

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angryasian
I know many hair stylists, and since they only rent seats usually at places,
they are pretty familiar with their clients. They already friend on facebook,
follow on twitter, or have email addresses and phone numbers.

Agree with the reviews. Also its sort of hard to trust the reviews from people
that chose to follow you, meaning they already have a good relationship with
the provider. This already puts their review into question.

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conradev
I hope the world runs out of ideas for social networks soon.

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marvinkennis
Why is that?

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kin
I think it's a great idea and concept! It definitely hits a subset of Yelp but
on a more personal and individualized sense. Good luck! In terms of Feedback
on design I would try and ditch having the bright green everywhere. IMO, it
looks like MS Paint coloring so it comes off a tad tacky.

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ca136
The neon green on the Opez site is giving me a headache. And the white text on
green background is really hard to read. It's an interesting idea, and may be
helpful if they can integrate with some of the existing networks - I just
really hope they change the color scheme.

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ora600
That's an awesome idea and I hope it works out well. I'd love to be able to
follow my favorite hair stylist and beautician around. I also hope my
customers will want to follow their favorite database consultant :)

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toddmorey
Maybe highlight a better example than a bartender? I can image looking on an
Opez page for a tutor, lawyer, or accountant, but I'm just not sure what I'd
need my bartender to tell me via Opez...

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int3rnaut
Maybe he learned to mix a mean shirley temple.

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matan_a
While at first glace i'd think it competes with Yelp and Angie's List, it does
have a different angle. It will be interesting to see how it develops.

Ultimately, word of mouth has a very powerful influence on which service
providers people choose - but more likely from people you trust as well.

Having said that, not only is the rating of the service provider important,
but also the quality of the relationship of the viewer to the rater.

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brentvatne
This is neat! I can think of many potential use cases for this from the
perspective of both the customer and the service professional. The service
industry has so many sub-par performers, so it'll be great to have a service
that identifies and rewards (through identification) the good ones.

Can you disclose any other features you have planned beyond profiles and
following?

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plc
stay tuned =) We have a lot of awesome product features in the pipeline that
will be released in the next few weeks.

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coridactyl
It would be really great if one could view the pertinent parts of this site
(users' pages) on an iPhone, but "WHOAH THIS IS MOBILE!" is the redirect I'm
getting. Sigh.

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chailatte
Yelp already has most facebook functionalities, and listings for service
professionals.

You should just say 'we're competing with yelp. wish us luck'

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jsavimbi
I'm having a hard time believing that this concept made it past the pitch
stage. I can't even.

