3 ms·

Glassdoor is basically workplace Yelp. It started out useful for job hunting, now it's also a gamed system with pay-for-PR.

dlubarov 8y ago
FWIW, Yelp advertising has no effect on reviews. Allegedly some sales reps claimed that they could manipulate reviews, but such claims would have been empty threats/promises. This has been tested in court several times; see e.g. the 9th circuit's opinion on Levitt v. Yelp! Inc: > the business owners pled insufficient facts to make out a plausible claim that Yelp authored negative reviews of their businesses (I interned at Yelp in 2009.) Edit: This is what Yelp says about it: https://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq https://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq
- kortilla 8y ago
  Yelp not authoring negative reviews is significantly different than offering tools to hide real negative reviews.
  - Retric 8y ago
    What is so strange about this is companies like Yelp become utterly useless. Having completely destroyed the value of their brand Yelp still gets traffic at least until the next briefly honest startup shows up.
  - dlubarov 8y ago
    I should have quoted the district court's ruling, which goes more in depth. They weren't convinced that changes to the plantiffs' rating were related to their interactions with Yelp: > The SAC purports to document fluctuations in plaintiffs’ overall star ratings that apparently correlate with their advertising decisions, but it in actuality only provides select snapshots of plaintiffs’ overall star ratings. [...] Chan’s mixture of positive and negative reviews fluctuated over time irrespective of the activities complained of in the SAC, and in the absence of a more complete picture of Chan’s reviews, the court cannot equate a few drops in overall star ratings to an implied threat of harm from Yelp. These fluctuations could just as easily be the result of planted ads by plaintiffs, the functioning of Yelp’s automated filter, or negative attacks from competitors or former employees.
- everybodyknows 8y ago
  > ... no effect on reviews Looking now at the web UI, can you offer any insight into how "Yelp sort" -- the default -- decides which reviews to push out the back pages?
  - dlubarov 8y ago
    I didn't actually work on the systems that score reviews and filter out certain ("not recommended") reviews, so I'm not sure what signals went into them. I would guess recency, photos, account age/reputation, etc. I had some other reasons for believing it was impossible for sales reps to manipulate review scores, but my memory is very foggy since this was ~9 years ago. Sorry if I made it sound like I had more insider knowledge; I edited that out of my comment.
- reaperducer 8y ago
  FWIW, Yelp advertising has no effect on reviews There was a New York Times article a few years ago saying otherwise. I tried to Google it, but... Google. Perhaps someone else will have better luck.
- kaikai 8y ago
  This is untrue, no matter what Yelp says about it. I used to run a small business. We had small-town drama, and some left a review saying we gave them food poisoning (we did not serve food of any kind). Yelp refused to take down the review for over a year. Then a salesman called, offering advertising, and we said Well gee, we'd love to, but this review... and it was gone. We didn't even have to pay for advertising, just had to play hard to get with the sales guy.
FilterSweep 8y ago
It’s far worse though. You’re going to eat another meal in 6-24 hours. Glassdoor is affecting people’s lives and livelihoods.

dlubarov 8y ago

FWIW, Yelp advertising has no effect on reviews. Allegedly some sales reps claimed that they could manipulate reviews, but such claims would have been empty threats/promises. This has been tested in court several times; see e.g. the 9th circuit's opinion on Levitt v. Yelp! Inc: > the business owners pled insufficient facts to make out a plausible claim that Yelp authored negative reviews of their businesses (I interned at Yelp in 2009.) Edit: This is what Yelp says about it: https://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq https://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq

kortilla 8y ago
Yelp not authoring negative reviews is significantly different than offering tools to hide real negative reviews.
- Retric 8y ago
  What is so strange about this is companies like Yelp become utterly useless. Having completely destroyed the value of their brand Yelp still gets traffic at least until the next briefly honest startup shows up.
- dlubarov 8y ago
  I should have quoted the district court's ruling, which goes more in depth. They weren't convinced that changes to the plantiffs' rating were related to their interactions with Yelp: > The SAC purports to document fluctuations in plaintiffs’ overall star ratings that apparently correlate with their advertising decisions, but it in actuality only provides select snapshots of plaintiffs’ overall star ratings. [...] Chan’s mixture of positive and negative reviews fluctuated over time irrespective of the activities complained of in the SAC, and in the absence of a more complete picture of Chan’s reviews, the court cannot equate a few drops in overall star ratings to an implied threat of harm from Yelp. These fluctuations could just as easily be the result of planted ads by plaintiffs, the functioning of Yelp’s automated filter, or negative attacks from competitors or former employees.
everybodyknows 8y ago
> ... no effect on reviews Looking now at the web UI, can you offer any insight into how "Yelp sort" -- the default -- decides which reviews to push out the back pages?
- dlubarov 8y ago
  I didn't actually work on the systems that score reviews and filter out certain ("not recommended") reviews, so I'm not sure what signals went into them. I would guess recency, photos, account age/reputation, etc. I had some other reasons for believing it was impossible for sales reps to manipulate review scores, but my memory is very foggy since this was ~9 years ago. Sorry if I made it sound like I had more insider knowledge; I edited that out of my comment.
reaperducer 8y ago
FWIW, Yelp advertising has no effect on reviews There was a New York Times article a few years ago saying otherwise. I tried to Google it, but... Google. Perhaps someone else will have better luck.
kaikai 8y ago
This is untrue, no matter what Yelp says about it. I used to run a small business. We had small-town drama, and some left a review saying we gave them food poisoning (we did not serve food of any kind). Yelp refused to take down the review for over a year. Then a salesman called, offering advertising, and we said Well gee, we'd love to, but this review... and it was gone. We didn't even have to pay for advertising, just had to play hard to get with the sales guy.

FilterSweep 8y ago

It’s far worse though. You’re going to eat another meal in 6-24 hours. Glassdoor is affecting people’s lives and livelihoods.