Comments on: A Social Media Fall From Grace

By: Maurice

Maurice — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:39:34 +0000

you do know that real resturant reviewers normaly do so anoymously – ime surprise dteh the NYC didnt know that.

Or are Resturant Reviewers in NY like the Cabal of Theatre reviewers

By: Jeremy, Yelp CEO

Jeremy, Yelp CEO — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:15:28 +0000

Hi Karen,

There is an old saying “don’t shoot the messenger” for a reason, the messenger (Yelp) gets shot at all the time. We have become an important arbiter of small business reputation and this makes a lot of people uncomfortable, suspicious, and open to conspiracy theories. This is not unlike when Google rose to prominence in web search and suddenly websites and businesses were affected by something over which they had little control, namely their rank in Google.

We have been very open about our policies and in fact we have provided answer to a number of your questions right on our site:

http://www.yelp.com/faq#pushingReviews
http://www.yelp.com/faq#missingReviews

The reality is that the bloggers and journalists talking about these horrible claims are simply passing along accusations which are easy to make and of course never fully investigated or backed up.

When the NYTimes when did their recent story they too had all the information you did yet printed this positive assessment:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/dining/05yelp.html

It’s easy to throw stones, but nothing takes the place of old fashion research.

By: Pink

Pink — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:06:27 +0000

It looks like Yelp is trying to monetize their site by writing positive reviews. I’ve heard the rumors, and if it’s true it’s very slimey.

By: What Are You Doing To Grow Your Community?

What Are You Doing To Grow Your Community? — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:07:43 +0000

[...] social communities that you can’t even tell when they are promoting their own stuff because, unlike Yelp, you never have to question their [...]

By: Citysearch Gets Mobile and Social

Citysearch Gets Mobile and Social — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:44:03 +0000

[...] redesign comes just a few days after some bad press for Yelp, a rival local review site. Yelp is alleged to have offered to remove or move down negative reviews [...]

By: Lisa Barone

Lisa Barone — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:12:55 +0000

Thanks for the link, David, totally didn’t see that.

By: David Mihm

David Mihm — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:12:49 +0000

Hey Lisa, great write-up. I more or less said the same thing yesterday in my comments on Miriam Ellis’ post on the same subject (the Press Democrat is her hometown paper), though not nearly as deeply or as eloquently

By: Dana Lookadoo

Dana Lookadoo — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:00:18 +0000

Thanks, Lisa, for the insight about Yelp. I didn’t understand the changes and ramifications of what has been happening to Yelp.

Your summary really helps to shed light as well as provide Yelp with some free consulting. If they are doing any reputation management, they will find this post and genuinely engage in the conversation.