SubscribeI am heartened to see the Internet buzz created this week when news sufraced that Yelp is now embroiled in a lawsuit alleging Yelp is involved in an extortion plot. Now, whether there is actual extortion going on is beyond my experience — and I wonder if there really was extortion in any circumstance. Perhaps just really, really inept salesmanship.
Star-rating? Gone. Two reviews? Gone. Why are Yelp.com's legit-police all over Red Moon? It's unfair and uncalled for!
Bottom line though — the PR nightmare for Yelp is beginning. If authenticity is what we crave in this hyper-connected time — the lack of authenticity Yelp shows its community will be its downfall.
I get the reasons Yelp might want to pull or flag a review here or there — the whole Yelp for Yelpers’ sake argument… that you ought to be a regular on the site to have your voice heard. That way, you can trust that the reviews you read are also from regulars.
But in a market like the Twin Cities and their suburbs… how the hell does that make business sense? Take Red Moon Chinese Cafe, for instance. In the last year or so, more than a half dozen reviews have been written about my restaurant. All glowing, positive and supportive. Each one has been removed by Yelp. Why?
Beyond my anger as a small business operator — let’s consider the business sense of this move… even if each of them came from fringe Yelp users who aren’t really apart of the “community.”
Yelp is huge in Chicago, San Francisco, Manhattan. So huge, Google was ready to pony-up mad cash to buy Yelp. But look to the Minneapolis market to see whether this company has legs… and I cannot find the evidence that Yelp has staying power outside of Minneapolis proper.
If you can’t land the users, Yelp… you have already hit your peak. And if you want new users, you need to be able to show them there is value in the site. So when someone goes looking for Chinese food in Eden Prairie, MN and restaurants continually pop up with one or no reviews, people will continue to get the idea that your site is worthless. Meantime, CitySearch or other Web sites have 10+ reviews for similar listings.
If I were Yelp — I would completely trash the system currently in place that removes reviews seemingly haphazardly. I would restore every review ever written. You know why? Because authenticity is so easy to see for all of us looking to the Web for answers to our everyday questions. Bogus reviews will appear bogus. Overly-hateful reviews will appear as such. Cruel words will be ignored. The truth will shine through. We do not need your corporate-wannabe-minders doing our jobs for us, Yelp! So stop the funny business!
I agree with you entirely…Yelp should be encouraging business owners, not chopping off their legs or monkeying around with their ratings. No one wants to advertise on a site that threatens or bullies you around…and buzz like this will only make Yelp less relevant.