Yelp's CEO Says Google 'Has Lost Its Mind'

Once upon a time, there was a search engine named Google. Google was big and powerful but lacked a way to connect and engage with its audience. It decided to buy Yelp, a friendly company with excellent user engagement. The deal fell through and both companies left discussions feeling sour about it. (Google eventually bought Zagatin 2011.) In the intervening years, Yelp and Google bickered about things like search engine optimization and Yelp repeatedly accused Google of shady business practices — even while Yelp was being accused by other partners of similarly shady practices. Yesterday Yelp's CEO Jeremy Stoppelman confirmed during an interview with Re/Code's Kara Swisher that he saw no good in the search giant. "Google," Stoppelman said yesterday on air, "has lost its mind."

According to Re/Code, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman is not holding back. "Google has just completely lost its mind when it comes to focusing on the user," Stoppelman told Re/Code's Kara Swisher. "They're doing whatever it takes to preserve that monopoly, and it's sad."

The CEO went on to again accuse Google of "stealing" Yelp's content, as it did in 2011. Listen to the whole Re/Code Decode podcast here.