Yelp!

I use Yelp on a regular basis. I like it so much that I contribute on a regular basis. However, recently, I realized that Yelp can be paid and bought. If you advertise with them, you can bury reviews that may be...mildly critical of the establishments.

Yelp claims they run reviews through anti-fraud filter. Basically, it tries to detect fake reviews and filter them out.

Guess what? Dr. Bindi recently has a prominent Yelp banner on his website. This means that he paid the company for the advertisement. What does this do for him? It pushes 5 star reviews high up and then...bury reviews that may not be exactly glowing. That's fine, they have to earn money somehow.

Interestingly enough, my review got filtered out. Yelp can push unfavorable reviews down, but when they filter out legitimate reviews as bogus, then they stepped into the the realm of shadiness. Now, I ask you, with my active review writing and even with my taking out some of the sharp criticisms, the review still got filtered out. Why? Because I spoke the truth. Unfavorable 3 line reviews are OK, but a balanced and truthful review backed up with research will get filtered out. Nevertheless, my review for Dr. Furlong stays. Am I bogus or not, Yelp? You can't have it both ways.

Did Dr. Bindi after having paid Yelp to promote him requested my review be buried? You decide.

That is so wrong, Yelp. Apparently, you can buy reviews on Yelp or pay to filter unfavorable reviews. This may not be Dr. Bindi's fault, but it may come back to hurt him in the long run. Most Yelp users click on the filtered reviews to get the whole picture sans shady dealings. Having a legitimate review buried is bad for business.


Update 3/22/12: Okay, it looks like it's part of Yelp's funky algorithm. It wasn't part of some diabolical conspiracy by Yelp and Dr. Bindi.  The trick is to add some friends and update your profile with your real name and it will eventually get your review out of filter.