4 ms·

I'd love for Google to buy them so I could trust them. Pro-tip: if you have a credibility problem so severe that you need to put up notices saying that your si

by cjensen 11y ago

I'd love for Google to buy them so I could trust them. Pro-tip: if you have a credibility problem so severe that you need to put up notices saying that your site does not bias reviews, you probably should stop sorting and filtering reviews based on criteria so opaque that it is indistinguishable from bias.

mawburn 11y ago
>I'd love for Google to buy them so I could trust them. I don't, you can still retain some bit of anonymity on Yelp. Google would probably try to force you to use your real name. I don't know what Google's problem with real names are, but it needs to stop. The last time I left a legitimate bad review for a restaurant on Google, I was harassed through both Google and Facebook. I blocked the owner, his wife, and others, but it made me extremely uncomfortable.
- ISL 11y ago
  Sounds like real names have power, then, no? If I know that you, as mawburn, are backing a review with your personal reputation, I'm going to believe it a lot more.
  - ssmoot 11y ago
    That should be his choice though. (For myself, as an avid Yelp user, I don't care. It's mostly easy to pick up good vs bad reviews IME.) I also don't have a lot of sympathy for "small business owners" wanting to fight bad reviews. I don't need or want your pointless TripAdvisor style feedback. It's antagonistic, and likely to discourage good reviews. The playing field is level. That's all that really matters. So you get a few completely bogus, unfair reviews? So what. You're in the same boat as anyone else. Give me anonymized data. And while some few businesses will suffer, the amount of reviews encouraged will serve a greater good. At least that's my theory.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
  - mawburn 11y ago
    Why should it matter if it's my personal reputation or an online persona? A legitimate review, is a legitimate review. There are plenty of people out there writing legitimate things online under online personas, like mawburn. If I read a review from Joe Bob, I don't know Joe Bob and I don't really care who he is. The fact that I can see his real name makes absolutely no difference to me as a user. All I care about is what he said. To me, his real name is no more different than if he was Joe B. or J. Bob or redneck69.
    - vonklaus 11y ago
      > A legitimate review, is a legitimate review. To filter for legitimate reviews, real identity can be important. That turned out to be what set facebook apart. People transacted online as themselves, and they incorporated real life experiences into their profiles. Reviews that were verified to be by a person, with a verifiable identity, track record, and reputation can raise the signal to noise. If you simply need a valid email address, anyone can make as many reviews as they want with no stakes, which in turn, devalues everyones ratings in general.
  - tracker1 11y ago
    This could be adjusted for other reviews a person does... a lot of fake review accounts don't have many reviews, and tend to lean towards all 5 or 1 stars respectively. It there's a variety of 2-4 star reviews, and actually insightful responses it adds weight even without anonymity. I really wish Amazon would add such weighting to reviews in terms of computing the average stars for a given product since they have this feedback data. There's very little reason others can't do the same... extending location reviews to more than a "like" would go a long way towards helping too.
  - ProAm 11y ago
    > Sounds like real names have power, then, no? It does prevent honest feedback. What's the value in using your real name? As a user I get zero benefit/upside from it, and huge potential downside.
    - NeutronBoy 11y ago
      That's pretty much the entire point - the upside is that there's a downside for writing bad review (and by 'bad review' I mean from an objective perspective - terribly written content, content doesn't match rating, etc. Not a negative review of the restaurant).
- yuhong 11y ago
  Fortunately the legal protections seems to be strong. Harassment is probably the worst thing you will have to deal with.
- GFischer 11y ago
  I had the opposite experience: when I left a bad review at a delivery service, I had a call from the manager apologizing profusely and explaining the reason for the bad service, and he sent me a free delivery to make up for their mistake.
avolcano 11y ago
I don't think Yelp selling to another company with an ad business is going to increase trust.
- cjensen 11y ago
  Yelp has a history of salesmen selling business the right to mess with their reviews [1] [2]. I don't love Google, but I'm confident they will end that. (Yelp claims to have ended it already, but they have already lost my trust) [1] http://www.jwz.org/blog/2009/02/yelp-shakedown/ http://www.jwz.org/blog/2009/02/yelp-shakedown/ [2] http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/11/business/fi-lazarus11 http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/11/business/fi-lazarus1...
nattofriends 11y ago
Glassdoor reviews have a notice that is almost word-for-word from Yelp's. Should Google buy Glassdoor to fix their credibility problem?
- caseyf7 11y ago
  I've seen HR departments that write at least 2 five star reviews a week on Glassdoor. Glassdoor still hasn't noticed.

by cjensen 11y ago

mawburn 11y ago

>I'd love for Google to buy them so I could trust them. I don't, you can still retain some bit of anonymity on Yelp. Google would probably try to force you to use your real name. I don't know what Google's problem with real names are, but it needs to stop. The last time I left a legitimate bad review for a restaurant on Google, I was harassed through both Google and Facebook. I blocked the owner, his wife, and others, but it made me extremely uncomfortable.

ISL 11y ago
Sounds like real names have power, then, no? If I know that you, as mawburn, are backing a review with your personal reputation, I'm going to believe it a lot more.
- ssmoot 11y ago
  That should be his choice though. (For myself, as an avid Yelp user, I don't care. It's mostly easy to pick up good vs bad reviews IME.) I also don't have a lot of sympathy for "small business owners" wanting to fight bad reviews. I don't need or want your pointless TripAdvisor style feedback. It's antagonistic, and likely to discourage good reviews. The playing field is level. That's all that really matters. So you get a few completely bogus, unfair reviews? So what. You're in the same boat as anyone else. Give me anonymized data. And while some few businesses will suffer, the amount of reviews encouraged will serve a greater good. At least that's my theory.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- mawburn 11y ago
  Why should it matter if it's my personal reputation or an online persona? A legitimate review, is a legitimate review. There are plenty of people out there writing legitimate things online under online personas, like mawburn. If I read a review from Joe Bob, I don't know Joe Bob and I don't really care who he is. The fact that I can see his real name makes absolutely no difference to me as a user. All I care about is what he said. To me, his real name is no more different than if he was Joe B. or J. Bob or redneck69.
  - vonklaus 11y ago
    > A legitimate review, is a legitimate review. To filter for legitimate reviews, real identity can be important. That turned out to be what set facebook apart. People transacted online as themselves, and they incorporated real life experiences into their profiles. Reviews that were verified to be by a person, with a verifiable identity, track record, and reputation can raise the signal to noise. If you simply need a valid email address, anyone can make as many reviews as they want with no stakes, which in turn, devalues everyones ratings in general.
- tracker1 11y ago
  This could be adjusted for other reviews a person does... a lot of fake review accounts don't have many reviews, and tend to lean towards all 5 or 1 stars respectively. It there's a variety of 2-4 star reviews, and actually insightful responses it adds weight even without anonymity. I really wish Amazon would add such weighting to reviews in terms of computing the average stars for a given product since they have this feedback data. There's very little reason others can't do the same... extending location reviews to more than a "like" would go a long way towards helping too.
- ProAm 11y ago
  > Sounds like real names have power, then, no? It does prevent honest feedback. What's the value in using your real name? As a user I get zero benefit/upside from it, and huge potential downside.
  - NeutronBoy 11y ago
    That's pretty much the entire point - the upside is that there's a downside for writing bad review (and by 'bad review' I mean from an objective perspective - terribly written content, content doesn't match rating, etc. Not a negative review of the restaurant).
yuhong 11y ago
Fortunately the legal protections seems to be strong. Harassment is probably the worst thing you will have to deal with.
GFischer 11y ago
I had the opposite experience: when I left a bad review at a delivery service, I had a call from the manager apologizing profusely and explaining the reason for the bad service, and he sent me a free delivery to make up for their mistake.

avolcano 11y ago

I don't think Yelp selling to another company with an ad business is going to increase trust.

cjensen 11y ago
Yelp has a history of salesmen selling business the right to mess with their reviews [1] [2]. I don't love Google, but I'm confident they will end that. (Yelp claims to have ended it already, but they have already lost my trust) [1] http://www.jwz.org/blog/2009/02/yelp-shakedown/ http://www.jwz.org/blog/2009/02/yelp-shakedown/ [2] http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/11/business/fi-lazarus11 http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/11/business/fi-lazarus1...

nattofriends 11y ago

Glassdoor reviews have a notice that is almost word-for-word from Yelp's. Should Google buy Glassdoor to fix their credibility problem?

caseyf7 11y ago
I've seen HR departments that write at least 2 five star reviews a week on Glassdoor. Glassdoor still hasn't noticed.