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Am I the only one who believes that yelp is prolly telling the truth and that it was just a coincidence? It sounds quite plausible to me that their algorithms w
by ma2rten 15y ago
Am I the only one who believes that yelp is prolly telling the truth and that it was just a coincidence? It sounds quite plausible to me that their algorithms work in the way, that are described in the article.
- noduerme 15y agoJust because it's algorithmic doesn't mean it's legal or clean. I can write an algorithm that searches your cookies for porn sites, figures out who employs you, and emails you a customized extortion threat. If their algorithm works the way it's described in the article, then it'll downrank or remove 10 legitimate, positive posts from real customers if they're made in one day, and will preserve and uprank 1 illegitimate negative post from a competitor, unless the unwilling subject of this debate agrees to pay to remove the negative review. That's the definition of extortion, and if ever there was an algorithm written for that purpose, the one described in the article is it.
- ma2rten 15y agoThe way I understand this is, that he was not asked to pay to have the negative review removed, just for advertising, which was totally unrelated to his reviews.
- veyron 15y agoHe was asked to pay for advertising. He wasn't happy with previous dealings with yelp, so he declined. Then, all of the positive reviews that were on the site mysteriously disappeared. One plausible explanation is that all of the positive reviewers removed their responses. Another one is that all of the positive reviewers weren't real. But a third explanation is that they were removed precisely because he chose not to pay for advertising. And in the business owner's mind, that is what happened.
- noduerme 15y agoIf there was a reasonable or non-negligible possibility that removal of the positive reviews resulted from his failure to pay the bribe, then the onus is on the company to provide records to the contrary. That's the point of subpoenaing the poster of the negative comment that survived; not to sue him directly, but to establish the mechanics of and facts arising from Yelp's algorithm, and to establish a pattern of extortion. Consider: Yelp's algorithm could just as easily flag EVERYONE who gets a single star review for a sales phone call.
- pbreit 15y agoNo, you are not. I am fairly confident that Yelp behaves above-board. It has a few hundred sales people making a lot of calls and I don't doubt that there are isolated incidents of questionably behavior. I also believe there is a lot of mis-interpretation. For example, advertisers get to choose one review to display at the top of the list. This feature is usually twisted by detractors beyond recognition.
- potatolicious 15y agoI want to believe Yelp is above board - but the sheer mountain of accusations leveled against them is not encouraging.
- dasil003 15y agoIt certainly seems like the majority of people complaining about tend to be mom and pop operations with little or no internet savvy. This tends to foster a paranoid attitude, sort of like when you know nothing about cars and take your car to a new mechanic. On the other hand, Yelp is walking a thin line with their business model.