A Kinder, Gentler Yelp?

Published on Tuesday, April 6, 2010, by Roxanne Webber / Edit Post

On the heels of a rash of lawsuits accusing the site of extortion, Yelp.com CEO Jeremy Stoppelman posted to the Yelp blog about the new ways the site would up its transparency by adding a link for users to see reviews that were automatically filtered off a business's page, and eliminating the "Favorite Review" feature from its advertising package, which had previously allowed an advertiser to select a review that would appear at the top of its listing.

The thinking behind the changes, explained Stoppelman on the Yelp blog yesterday, is that "Lifting the veil on our review filter and doing away with 'Favorite Review' will make it even clearer that displayed reviews on Yelp are completely independent of advertising -- or any sort of manipulation," something the site has been accused of over, and over, and over.

I took a look at some of the filtered reviews on a few local places, and didn't see any blatantly obvious reason why they had been filtered out. Many seemed to come from users with few postings to the site, (which is sometimes an indicator of a shill or someone out to smear a place.) There were also a surprisingly large number of reviews being removed for violating the review guidelines or terms of service. Okay, not sure what this proves or doesn't prove about Yelp's business practices. If you want to peek behind the deep, dark filter curtain, go to the bottom of a business page and click the light-gray link for the filtered results next to the total number of reviews on the left.

Will Yelp.com's new transparency help the site's image problems?

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  • When I saw how many of my own reviews were filtered, I thought, "What can I do to prove I'm real?" So I went through Yelp's FAQ's and... put up my picture, filled out the details of my profile, friended other Yelpers, commented on other reviews, etc. With no results. I can't help notice that while I have not written a negative review, and all of the "unfiltered" reviewers posted a lot of negative...+READ

    When I saw how many of my own reviews were filtered, I thought, "What can I do to prove I'm real?" So I went through Yelp's FAQ's and... put up my picture, filled out the details of my profile, friended other Yelpers, commented on other reviews, etc. With no results. I can't help notice that while I have not written a negative review, and all of the "unfiltered" reviewers posted a lot of negative reviews.

    I'm not sure if Yelp is actively extorting money, but they have created a situation that makes business owners pay them for help. Yelp filters reviews (they move "bad" reviews to a section where they are not part of your score). What's a bad review? Yelp won't say. The algorithm for filtering is very proprietary, and there is no recourse if you are filtered.

    The math behind the software may "unfiltered" you after a while, but there is no method of appeal or discussion. I've personally created 22 reviews (and every one of my reviews is filtered. If I'm doing something that's causing filtering, shouldn't Yelp help me to fix it? Instead, you are not told when you are filtered. Most reviewers are surprised when discover their filtered status. Even when you go to a business you've reviewed, you don't get told that you are in the filter. Instead, the first review you see is always your review. You need to know to go to the filter, sort the list to see that your review has been removed.

    I've looked at various businesses, and I see up to 2/3 of the reviews filtered. This certainly gets the attention of the business owner. When they contact Yelp (of when Yelp proactively contacts you) the conversation quickly moves to how their paid services can help you. If you follow their advice (including talking to every reviewer), your score probably will go up. No other review site that I can think of leverages user reviews like that to generate revenue.

    In my case I THINK that because all of my reviews are positive, I could look like a bot of some sort, assuming that Central Park, Moma, and the museum of natural history are paying for fake reviews. Yelp says tat the #1 reason they filter is because of "bots", yet they allow no form of communication to prove you are a real human being.-COLLAPSE