Social News: Facebook Inc (FB)’s Successful Tryout, LinkedIn Corp (LNKD) & Yelp Inc (YELP)’s Unexpected Twist

Yelp gets an earful from L.A. business owners (LATimes)
Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP) was hoping to debunk misconceptions and ease business owners’ concerns about the popular review website. Instead, many small-business owners at the company’s town hall meeting in Hollywood on Tuesday slammed the site, venting their frustration at Yelp for aggressive advertising tactics and bogus reviews that they said hurt their businesses. “I have one-star reviews for my diner from people that have never walked into the place. They’ve never stepped foot, they’ve never tried the food, but they give me one-star reviews.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Finally Made Available its New Embedded Posts Feature – ZNGA, RENN, YELP, GRPN, LNKD (FiscalInsider)
After the successful beta trial run for more than a month, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has finally made available its new embedded posts feature to all its users across the globe. In this new feature of embedded posts users can now share their posts publicly on the social network or on website or even on their blog. Tech focused site Mashable.com writes, “Anyone using a third party website, including users who post to personal blogs or websites, can now embed a public Facebook post directly into their own site. Users can find the line of code needed to embed a post or video by clicking on the arrow in the post’s upper right-hand corner.”

LinkedIn Reduces Minimum Age To 13 In UAE (GulfBusiness)
LProfessional networking site LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) has reduced the age limit for UAE users to 13 in a bid to target high school students looking for suitable university options, the site’s officials confirmed to Gulf Business. The minimum age to be a LinkedIn member has recently been changed across the world in line with official regulations. While most countries allow users aged 13 access to LinkedIn, countries such as US, Canada, Germany, Australia, Spain and South Korea have stipulated that LinkedIn users have to be at least 14, Netherlands has a minimum age requirement of 16, and China only permits adults aged 18 and above to use the site.

Watch Yelp’s CEO Defend Yelpers on Charlie Rose (Eater)
Here’s a video of Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP) CEO Jeremy Stoppelman’s interview on Charlie Rose last week. Stoppelman and Rose discuss the origins of Yelp, the importance of adapting to mobile technology, and Stoppelman’s decision not to sell to Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG). Stoppelman also defends the reliability of the reviews and reviewers on Yelp, gives his thoughts on whats wrong with Google and Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN), and much more: …On putting the business model second to consumer experience: “If you’re able to connect people with great local businesses, if people are coming to a site to find business, those are transactions. There’s going to be a business model there.”