Companies Google should buy in 2010

What it is: The local business review site lets users give their opinion about restaurants, museums and other attractions around cities and towns.

Why Google should buy it: As more people use the mobile Web to help them make decisions about where to go, there is a growing market for local businesses to advertise online. Yelp is the most successful company so far to tap into the local market. A marriage between the two companies would help Google improve its social networking capabilities and it would open the door to partnerships with a huge number of local businesses that want to advertise.

Why Google shouldn't buy it: Yelp may be asking for too much. A more-than $500 million deal was reportedly agreed to, but Yelp pulled out at the last minute.

Will it happen? A good bet. A number of analysts think that Yelp broke the deal after the story leaked, hoping to get a higher bid from another potential suitor. But in the end, Google will probably win out.

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