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We've heard again and again that Yelp harasses small businesses for ad buys. In itself, not a problem. But we've also heard that their mystery secret sauce "alg

We've heard again and again that Yelp harasses small businesses for ad buys. In itself, not a problem. But we've also heard that their mystery secret sauce "algorithm" then by sheer coincidence puts down 5 star reviews in favor of negative ones when they say no. If Yelp was really interested in clearing the air, they'd show how their algorithms are making the decisions they're making. It's not like they'd give away their entire platform or market space by doing so, there's such immense network effect at play with Yelp that they'd likely never be unseated. But they won't, and I suspect it's because they do manipulate it, even if slightly, because they have have every single solitary financial and business reason to do so.

whack 7y ago
You could make the same accusation against any gatekeeper. The linked article quotes a unbiased professor and his peer reviewed study which found no evidence of review tampering by Yelp as a means of extortion. Any accusations at this point are pure speculation.
- FussyZeus 7y ago
  Except there's no way to review Yelp's process without intimate involvement of Yelp itself, which, if you assume for a moment that they do have levers and strings into their algorithm, means they would be pre-prepared to change how data is presented to those conducting the study, with minimal impact to their ongoing business. Or, even if they don't manipulate them directly but simply have baked that behavior into the algorithm, it wouldn't even look that different. It's not as if Yelp wouldn't assume this behavior would attract complaints and regulatory attention, so they'd be motivated to make sure it's as subtle and undetectable as possible, which when you have total and complete control of a closed-source codebase, is easy. Do we have proof? No, and that's why Yelp won in court, they couldn't be implicated beyond a shadow of a doubt of manipulation. But considering how much of their system is nothing but shadows and doubts, I don't find that all that exonerating.
pessimizer 7y ago
That would have exactly the same result as a search engine publishing their complete ranking algorithm. It would instantly be gamed and worthless. I find Yelp useful and generally accurate.

whack 7y ago

You could make the same accusation against any gatekeeper. The linked article quotes a unbiased professor and his peer reviewed study which found no evidence of review tampering by Yelp as a means of extortion. Any accusations at this point are pure speculation.

FussyZeus 7y ago
Except there's no way to review Yelp's process without intimate involvement of Yelp itself, which, if you assume for a moment that they do have levers and strings into their algorithm, means they would be pre-prepared to change how data is presented to those conducting the study, with minimal impact to their ongoing business. Or, even if they don't manipulate them directly but simply have baked that behavior into the algorithm, it wouldn't even look that different. It's not as if Yelp wouldn't assume this behavior would attract complaints and regulatory attention, so they'd be motivated to make sure it's as subtle and undetectable as possible, which when you have total and complete control of a closed-source codebase, is easy. Do we have proof? No, and that's why Yelp won in court, they couldn't be implicated beyond a shadow of a doubt of manipulation. But considering how much of their system is nothing but shadows and doubts, I don't find that all that exonerating.

pessimizer 7y ago

That would have exactly the same result as a search engine publishing their complete ranking algorithm. It would instantly be gamed and worthless. I find Yelp useful and generally accurate.