Ever since the turn of the year, Yelp's iPhone app has been moving fairly solidly into the location-based service (LBS) territory, with check-ins - a pretty fundamental part of the whole location game – having been initialised back in January.

Of course, there's little point in checking in anywhere if there isn't some kind of reward or accolade unlocked as a result.

As such, TechCrunch reports Yelp now supports a hierarchy for each venue similar to that seen in rival apps such as Foursquare and Gowalla.

Those checking in at locations will now find they're able to become Duke or Duchess of the venue if they outperform other visitors.

Picking up enough such titles in one area promotes the user in question to the status of Baron, while it's also possible to become King of an entire town or city by the same means.

King of the world

While TechCrunch touts this as a direct copy of the setups offered by Yelp's newfound rivals, in truth it actually goes beyond what many offer, taking the Mayor system and expanding it to cover whole urban areas.

Yelp's main advantage, despite not launching with the social focus Foursquare made its foundation, is its database of user reviews – an area where it has always outperformed many of its rival LBS apps.

If it can fully integrate more gameplay features and reward schemes, the balance between the two schools of thought might offer it a genuine competitive advantage.
TechCrunch