It’s hard not to feel a huge degree of schadenfreude over Yelp’s pitiful plight these days.
For the benefit of those not living in the U.S.,Yelp is an online destination for Reviews of restaurants and other businesses.
Easily Manipulable
We’ve always believed a lot of reviews on the Yelp site are junk.
Why?
Because it’s hard to prevent a PR agency, friends and family or even the owner of a restaurant or small business from creating a Yelp account and posting a flattering review.
Or a competitor from badmouthing a rival business.
Or an idler with lots of time from just scribbling some drivel.
We’ve seen reviews of NYC restaurants that have absolutely no resemblance to reality.
As we’ve said ad nauseum, ad infinitum we may not be able to adequately explain E=MC2 but we do know Indian food.
So we never cease to be surprised at the flattering reviews of Indian restaurants on Yelp, many of which we suspect are either written by PR people hired for the purpose or by friends/family.
Yelp Reputation Battered
If the easily manipulable reviews are one side of the Yelp nonsense, the other dirty side of Yelp is its stinking business practices.
Over the last few weeks, Yelp’s credibility has taken a severe beating with charges of extortion, propping up positive reviews and hiding negative reviews of paid advertisers, lawsuits et al. Continue reading »
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