4 ms·

> There. is. no. evidence. of. this. 5 seconds of googling: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimhandy/2012/08/16/think-yelp-is-unbiased-think-again/#6f4c122111d1

> There. is. no. evidence. of. this. 5 seconds of googling: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimhandy/2012/08/16/think-yelp-is-unbiased-think-again/#6f4c122111d1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimhandy/2012/08/16/think-yelp-... https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/yelp-accused-of-bullying-businesses-into-paying-for-better-reviews-1.2899308 https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/yelp-accused-of-bullying-bu... There are multiple accounts in the same results page, and even in this very page: > Yelp is utter trash. They've shaken down several friends of mine who own and run restaurants. Either you pay for their premium services or a bunch of 1 star reviews start magically appearing on your business Its a well known racket and they should be run out of town on a rail for it. > After I received my first positive review on the site they called me and tried selling me all kinds of advertising. Hundreds of dollars per month worth. I declined, and around the same time my review went from being on my business page to being buried behind a "View Reviews that are not recommended" link. Etc, etc. This seems like evidence. Or are all these people lying? Why is everyone slandering poor innocent Yelp then?

thoughtexplorer 8y ago
They're not lying, they believe it's happening. That doesn't mean it is, however. Chances are they're seeing things that can be explained in other ways. People who say they've seen bigfoot aren't lying when they genuinely believe they've seen bigfoot. That doesn't mean bigfoot exists. If Yelp actually did shake people down like that, there would very likely be concrete proof by now (recorded phone calls, documents, emails, undercover journalism, whistleblower employees). Just as there would be concrete proof of bigfoot by now.
ilikehurdles 8y ago
They’re not lying, they’re just attributing a sales call as a cause to some effect they only started paying attention to after the call, or they do get shaken down by a third party who targets them. Try registering a domain, your phone number on the Whois info, and the search rank shakedowns from scummy SEO services will start rolling in, calling themselves variations of “Google Search Advisors” threatening your site’s placement unless you pay. Some folks actually believe these calls are from google, and I’d expect people who own restaurants are targeted similarly, are much less techie and much less accustomed to these scams. Then there’s also the effect of people not paying attention to their ratings in an objective way and immediately after the call start attributing any event that follows to the call. And then of course there are folks who get a sales call after their first few reviews, as their business is picking up, and as that volume picks up some more critical folks show up and organically give negative reviews. I don’t consider a blog post about someone who’s relaying something they say they heard from their friends to be evidence. I’d believe it if they collected data both before and after the call in an objective and consistent way.

thoughtexplorer 8y ago

They're not lying, they believe it's happening. That doesn't mean it is, however. Chances are they're seeing things that can be explained in other ways. People who say they've seen bigfoot aren't lying when they genuinely believe they've seen bigfoot. That doesn't mean bigfoot exists. If Yelp actually did shake people down like that, there would very likely be concrete proof by now (recorded phone calls, documents, emails, undercover journalism, whistleblower employees). Just as there would be concrete proof of bigfoot by now.

ilikehurdles 8y ago

They’re not lying, they’re just attributing a sales call as a cause to some effect they only started paying attention to after the call, or they do get shaken down by a third party who targets them. Try registering a domain, your phone number on the Whois info, and the search rank shakedowns from scummy SEO services will start rolling in, calling themselves variations of “Google Search Advisors” threatening your site’s placement unless you pay. Some folks actually believe these calls are from google, and I’d expect people who own restaurants are targeted similarly, are much less techie and much less accustomed to these scams. Then there’s also the effect of people not paying attention to their ratings in an objective way and immediately after the call start attributing any event that follows to the call. And then of course there are folks who get a sales call after their first few reviews, as their business is picking up, and as that volume picks up some more critical folks show up and organically give negative reviews. I don’t consider a blog post about someone who’s relaying something they say they heard from their friends to be evidence. I’d believe it if they collected data both before and after the call in an objective and consistent way.