I’ve let another week slip by without a Friday 5, but fear not I’m back again this week and ready to roll. I had a good excuse. I spent a week on the West coast visiting the ARMA 2010 conference–that’s records managers and governance folks– and Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Santa Clara. I was also hard at work on an up coming article for EContent Magazine on the connection between content and location.

While I was away, Facebook came up with a new messaging system. Doesn’t it seem like they have a new announcement every week? They are beginning to remind of me of Google in more ways than one. Speaking of Google, they quietly released a new service, much like Yelp, that lets you rate local businesses. I will try to post something on it next week. Then there a couple of upstarts: Path, the so-called personal social network and RockMelt, the new socially aware browser.

Anyway, here’s this week’s Friday 5:

• Facebook’s New Messaging System Explained [VIDEO] – Mashable.
• RockMelt promises Facebook-linked web browsing on Chromium – Electronista.
• Google Hotpot: Social Layers Or Reinforced Box? - Outspoken Media.
• How to Control Your Privacy With Foursquare and Other Geoloaction Services – Social Media Examiner.
• Path — Introducing The Personal Network – Path Blog.

Photo by renaissancechambara on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

Say you’re visiting Seattle for the first time. Sure you can go online and search for sushi restaurants. You’ll get a smattering of listings and some of them might link to websites, but how can you really tell if they’re any good from their own websites (which always make them sound perfect)?

Or you move to Schenectady and need to find the top dog kennel for dear old Fido.

Or singed your hair off with a curling iron while on a business trip and have to find the best salon in Chicago to fix it.

How great would it be, if you could go to a social media site and type in the town, search for the business type you’re looking for and find tons of helpful user-generated reviews that describe the user experience of said restaurant, kennel and salon in detail?

You’re in luck – Yelp does exactly that. Their tagline, as a matter of fact, is Real People, Real Reviews.

The site features:

• The Best of Yelp (top businesses in several categories within the town you’re searching)
• The review of the day
• Sales and Deals near you
• Fresh Lists (user favorites)
• Popular events
• Talk: Chats/message boards
• Featured Yelpers

Check it out…I’m a real people and my real review is that it is a fantastic reference!