Comments on: Is Yelp acting like the Mob? http://oehlberg.com/blog/2009/02/19/yelp/ It's not a big truck Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:31:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: drbone http://oehlberg.com/blog/2009/02/19/yelp/comment-page-1/#comment-395 drbone Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:06:02 +0000 http://oehlberg.com/blog/?p=314#comment-395 I don't particularly care for Yelp myself. I've also read some of the negative things about yelp supposedly trying to extort money from businesses in exchange for highlighting positive reviews, etc. I think it's a better idea to avoid them and stick with established sites like citysearch, and I've noticed a lot of new review sites cropping up like fairplayreviews.com I don’t particularly care for Yelp myself. I’ve also read some of the negative things about yelp supposedly trying to extort money from businesses in exchange for highlighting positive reviews, etc. I think it’s a better idea to avoid them and stick with established sites like citysearch, and I’ve noticed a lot of new review sites cropping up like fairplayreviews.com

]]> By: A Series of Tubes » Yelp CEO Jeremy Responds to oehlberg.com http://oehlberg.com/blog/2009/02/19/yelp/comment-page-1/#comment-274 A Series of Tubes » Yelp CEO Jeremy Responds to oehlberg.com Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:12:35 +0000 http://oehlberg.com/blog/?p=314#comment-274 [...] I previously posted that the eastbay express article along with a follow up article ran about Yelp.  They wrote about business owners begin extorted by Yelp.  The CEO of yelp responded on his Blog (twice), but did not respond to the second article which did not have anonymous sources.  I posted a 1 star review of yelp on yelp.com.  Within yelp itself, the CEO of yelp, Jeremy Stoppleman, responded to my 1 star review and to the allegations made in the east bay express stories and we have been going back and forth a bit today.  I figured I would post the exchange below since it is interesting.  I will always remember this day as the day my career as a hard hitting interviewer took off. [...] [...] I previously posted that the eastbay express article along with a follow up article ran about Yelp.  They wrote about business owners begin extorted by Yelp.  The CEO of yelp responded on his Blog (twice), but did not respond to the second article which did not have anonymous sources.  I posted a 1 star review of yelp on yelp.com.  Within yelp itself, the CEO of yelp, Jeremy Stoppleman, responded to my 1 star review and to the allegations made in the east bay express stories and we have been going back and forth a bit today.  I figured I would post the exchange below since it is interesting.  I will always remember this day as the day my career as a hard hitting interviewer took off. [...]

]]> By: Ben http://oehlberg.com/blog/2009/02/19/yelp/comment-page-1/#comment-262 Ben Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:21:23 +0000 http://oehlberg.com/blog/?p=314#comment-262 In general, I am convinced that the author of the follow-up was able to get in touch with some business owners who had dealt with shady characters from Yelp. I'd love to have seen an interview with a yelp ad-salesperson. I'm not going to make a blanket statement about marketers, but I definitely wouldn't be surprised to find out that they don't have the power to do the things they say they do (at least unofficially) and were simply lying in order to increase their commission on ads sold. Also, where's the business owner who bit and decided that advertising would be a great way to manipulate the business' yelp reviews? I've always treated yelp reviews much like I treated hardware reviews on newegg.com I assume they were all written by people who have no idea what they're talking about. "Yeah dude, I bought this sweet LED fan for my pimped out case, and between that and $2000 worth of other parts, my computer just screams! But, sometimes my computer crashes, so I give this part 2 eggs, but +2 for super fast shipping, so 4/5 total." On the other hand, if you look at 10 bad reviews and they all say the place is too small, well that's a useful indicator that it'll be crowded at peak hours. If half the positive reviews say the dj was spinning killer house music, well, there you go. It probably has a dj. It's too bad if yelp is manipulating its reviews, but I don't see it as actually diminishing the value of their product much, since I never trusted individual reviews anyway. In general, I am convinced that the author of the follow-up was able to get in touch with some business owners who had dealt with shady characters from Yelp. I’d love to have seen an interview with a yelp ad-salesperson. I’m not going to make a blanket statement about marketers, but I definitely wouldn’t be surprised to find out that they don’t have the power to do the things they say they do (at least unofficially) and were simply lying in order to increase their commission on ads sold. Also, where’s the business owner who bit and decided that advertising would be a great way to manipulate the business’ yelp reviews?

I’ve always treated yelp reviews much like I treated hardware reviews on newegg.com I assume they were all written by people who have no idea what they’re talking about. “Yeah dude, I bought this sweet LED fan for my pimped out case, and between that and $2000 worth of other parts, my computer just screams! But, sometimes my computer crashes, so I give this part 2 eggs, but +2 for super fast shipping, so 4/5 total.”

On the other hand, if you look at 10 bad reviews and they all say the place is too small, well that’s a useful indicator that it’ll be crowded at peak hours. If half the positive reviews say the dj was spinning killer house music, well, there you go. It probably has a dj.

It’s too bad if yelp is manipulating its reviews, but I don’t see it as actually diminishing the value of their product much, since I never trusted individual reviews anyway.

]]> By: A Series of Tubes » Verizon and Yelp http://oehlberg.com/blog/2009/02/19/yelp/comment-page-1/#comment-261 A Series of Tubes » Verizon and Yelp Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:41:09 +0000 http://oehlberg.com/blog/?p=314#comment-261 [...] still waiting to see what yelp does to respond to the updated criticiscm about extortion (see my updated yelp post).  I emailed them asking for a response (nothing yet) and their official blog still does not have [...] [...] still waiting to see what yelp does to respond to the updated criticiscm about extortion (see my updated yelp post).  I emailed them asking for a response (nothing yet) and their official blog still does not have [...]

]]> By: Danno http://oehlberg.com/blog/2009/02/19/yelp/comment-page-1/#comment-258 Danno Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:11:58 +0000 http://oehlberg.com/blog/?p=314#comment-258 The CEO went nuts on Twitter after the initial story came out -- you can go back and look at his posts from 2/19. http://twitter.com/jeremys Looks like he learned to keep his mouth shut though. East Bay Express did a followup and this time only used people who agreed to go on the record publicly. No response from Yelp. http://www.eastbayexpress.com/news/yelp_extortion_allegations_stack_up/Content?oid=946025 They do make a really good point. The CEO was complaining that the Express used anonymous sources, but Yelp is nothing BUT anonymous sources. The CEO went nuts on Twitter after the initial story came out — you can go back and look at his posts from 2/19.

http://twitter.com/jeremys

Looks like he learned to keep his mouth shut though. East Bay Express did a followup and this time only used people who agreed to go on the record publicly. No response from Yelp.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/news/yelp_extortion_allegations_stack_up/Content?oid=946025

They do make a really good point. The CEO was complaining that the Express used anonymous sources, but Yelp is nothing BUT anonymous sources.

]]> By: El Samayo Grande http://oehlberg.com/blog/2009/02/19/yelp/comment-page-1/#comment-250 El Samayo Grande Sat, 21 Feb 2009 06:57:34 +0000 http://oehlberg.com/blog/?p=314#comment-250 You'd think it's a sketchy article, but I've had a couple of friends tell me that their reviews on Yelp were removed or shifted to the bottom of the list. There's definitely something to this article... You’d think it’s a sketchy article, but I’ve had a couple of friends tell me that their reviews on Yelp were removed or shifted to the bottom of the list. There’s definitely something to this article…

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