The Review Site Yelp Draws Some Outcries of Its Own
SAN FRANCISCO — For computer and cellphone users in big American cities, Yelp has become a popular Web site for ranting, raving or just reading about local businesses, from the auto mechanic to the neighborhood watering hole.
Yelp has made some recent changes to please business owners. Yet it still refuses to investigate reviews accused of being inaccurate or permit businesses to respond to reviews on the site. Instead, the company operates on the premise that reviewers tend to be truthful and that greater accuracy will emerge from more reviews.
“Business owners want to control their reputation, and we’re just not going to let that happen,” he said. His top priority is “to make sure the community is protected and can share without fear of being publicly spat on.”
A one-star review of Tart, a Los Angeles restaurant, illustrates the impasse. “The turkey meatloaf was gritty and cold and I waited 45 minutes for my second $28 margarita,” one reviewer wrote in January. The restaurant’s owner, Peter Picataggio, complained to Yelp that he does not serve turkey meatloaf and the most expensive margarita on the menu is $25.
He asked Yelp to remove the review, and although he advertises on the site, the company refused. “If they’re going to take my money, I think the onus is on them, not on the business, to go and prove whether it’s true or false,” he said.
“We can’t referee factual disputes,” responded Mr. Stoppelman. “Why believe the business owner who has skin in the game?”
Other businesses simply want the ability to publicly respond to reviews, the way other review sites, such as the travel site TripAdvisor, allow businesses to do.
PK Art and Floral Design in San Francisco has a one-star review that accuses it of overcharging for a wedding bouquet. Pam Unkai, the owner, said the customer had requested expensive additions to her arrangements. When she complained to Yelp, the company told her to take it up with the reviewer by e-mail. “I wanted to respond on my page, so I know that everybody has the ability to judge by themselves,” Ms. Unkai said.
Yelp’s formula for determining which reviews appear on the site is also cloaked in mystery, some businesses say.
Fawn Pierre has a new puppy training business in San Francisco. About a quarter of her customers come from Yelp, she said, so she was concerned when three of her five-star reviews disappeared recently. When she contacted Yelp, the company referred her to a page on the Web site that said “reviews normally come and go from a business’s page.”
Mr. Stoppelman said Yelp’s spam filter scans for fishy reviews, such as those that seem to have been written by a malicious competitor or a business owner’s friend. He acknowledged, though, that the filter is overly vigilant, in some cases removing legitimate reviews.
Ms. Pierre said the missing reviews were written by unbiased, paying customers. “Here I am, a person with only five-star reviews, and I’m upset — there’s something going on here,” she said. “It makes me wonder: Do people who pay get a better deal; do their reviews stay up longer?”
Frustration with Yelp is most apparent in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the service began and where it has the power to make or break a restaurant or small shop. Two California doctors recently sued Yelp reviewers, claiming they had written false reviews.
Local news outlets have raised questions about the company’s practices, including a recent article in the East Bay Express, an alternative weekly, with the provocative headline: “Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0.” It reported that Yelp sales representatives had promised to move or remove negative reviews for advertisers.
Mr. Stoppelman said that Yelp does not move negative reviews for advertisers and applies the same ranking system to all companies on the site. Many advertisers, including Mr. Picataggio of Tart restaurant, have negative reviews.
Some of the confusion may come from the fact that advertisers, who pay $300 to $1,000 a month, are allowed to choose which review shows up at the top of their profile page and block ads from competitors. For other businesses, the first two listings a reader sees could be an ad for a competitor and a one-star review.
“If there’s no clarity about that process at all, it exacerbates the suspicion,” said Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and the former general counsel of Epinions, another review site.
Yelp’s lack of transparency does not affect its relationship with businesses alone. It also risks eroding users’ trust in the site. Eric Kingery, an engineer and frequent Yelp user in Chicago, discovered that a review he had written of a jeweler disappeared. “It just makes me suspicious of the impartiality,” he said. “It is a very useful service, but this kind of harms the integrity of the site.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/technology/start-ups/03yelp.html?pagewanted=all
Yelp has made some recent changes to please business owners. Yet it still refuses to investigate reviews accused of being inaccurate or permit businesses to respond to reviews on the site. Instead, the company operates on the premise that reviewers tend to be truthful and that greater accuracy will emerge from more reviews.
“Business owners want to control their reputation, and we’re just not going to let that happen,” he said. His top priority is “to make sure the community is protected and can share without fear of being publicly spat on.”
A one-star review of Tart, a Los Angeles restaurant, illustrates the impasse. “The turkey meatloaf was gritty and cold and I waited 45 minutes for my second $28 margarita,” one reviewer wrote in January. The restaurant’s owner, Peter Picataggio, complained to Yelp that he does not serve turkey meatloaf and the most expensive margarita on the menu is $25.
He asked Yelp to remove the review, and although he advertises on the site, the company refused. “If they’re going to take my money, I think the onus is on them, not on the business, to go and prove whether it’s true or false,” he said.
“We can’t referee factual disputes,” responded Mr. Stoppelman. “Why believe the business owner who has skin in the game?”
Other businesses simply want the ability to publicly respond to reviews, the way other review sites, such as the travel site TripAdvisor, allow businesses to do.
PK Art and Floral Design in San Francisco has a one-star review that accuses it of overcharging for a wedding bouquet. Pam Unkai, the owner, said the customer had requested expensive additions to her arrangements. When she complained to Yelp, the company told her to take it up with the reviewer by e-mail. “I wanted to respond on my page, so I know that everybody has the ability to judge by themselves,” Ms. Unkai said.
Yelp’s formula for determining which reviews appear on the site is also cloaked in mystery, some businesses say.
Fawn Pierre has a new puppy training business in San Francisco. About a quarter of her customers come from Yelp, she said, so she was concerned when three of her five-star reviews disappeared recently. When she contacted Yelp, the company referred her to a page on the Web site that said “reviews normally come and go from a business’s page.”
Mr. Stoppelman said Yelp’s spam filter scans for fishy reviews, such as those that seem to have been written by a malicious competitor or a business owner’s friend. He acknowledged, though, that the filter is overly vigilant, in some cases removing legitimate reviews.
Ms. Pierre said the missing reviews were written by unbiased, paying customers. “Here I am, a person with only five-star reviews, and I’m upset — there’s something going on here,” she said. “It makes me wonder: Do people who pay get a better deal; do their reviews stay up longer?”
Frustration with Yelp is most apparent in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the service began and where it has the power to make or break a restaurant or small shop. Two California doctors recently sued Yelp reviewers, claiming they had written false reviews.
Local news outlets have raised questions about the company’s practices, including a recent article in the East Bay Express, an alternative weekly, with the provocative headline: “Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0.” It reported that Yelp sales representatives had promised to move or remove negative reviews for advertisers.
Mr. Stoppelman said that Yelp does not move negative reviews for advertisers and applies the same ranking system to all companies on the site. Many advertisers, including Mr. Picataggio of Tart restaurant, have negative reviews.
Some of the confusion may come from the fact that advertisers, who pay $300 to $1,000 a month, are allowed to choose which review shows up at the top of their profile page and block ads from competitors. For other businesses, the first two listings a reader sees could be an ad for a competitor and a one-star review.
“If there’s no clarity about that process at all, it exacerbates the suspicion,” said Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and the former general counsel of Epinions, another review site.
Yelp’s lack of transparency does not affect its relationship with businesses alone. It also risks eroding users’ trust in the site. Eric Kingery, an engineer and frequent Yelp user in Chicago, discovered that a review he had written of a jeweler disappeared. “It just makes me suspicious of the impartiality,” he said. “It is a very useful service, but this kind of harms the integrity of the site.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/technology/start-ups/03yelp.html?pagewanted=all
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