Yelp Removes Review Filter to Counter Fraud Claims

San Francisco – Facing a barrage of class action lawsuits, Yelp,
the provider of user-generated local restaurant and business reviews, announced
on Tuesday that it will no longer let businesses pay to push a
"favorite" review to the top of the page, and will no longer edit out
reviews it deemed to be fraudulent. Yelp has been hit with a number of class
actions, filed on behalf of businesses that have advertised on the service and
say that Yelp extorted them into paying for ads in exchange for favorable
treatment.

"Despite our best efforts to educate consumers and the small
business community, myths about Yelp have persisted," Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman
in a blog post.

"We’ve said all along we believe these incorrect notions
stem from the combination of the filter and this advertising feature — and
we’re practicing what we preach.

"Lifting the veil on our review filter and doing
away with ‘Favorite Review’ will make it even clearer that displayed reviews on
Yelp are completely independent of advertising — or any sort of manipulation."

Stoppelman added that the removal of the filter, which will surface all
previous reviews of a business that were previously edited out, for whatever
reason, will let a user "take a look at any business listing on Yelp and
see for yourself the work the review filter has done behind the scenes."

Users
will still be able to see the ‘filtered’ Yelp results if they wish, by toggling
a preference setting on the site.

Finally, the company said it has created a
Small Business Advisory Council to address concerns of small business owners.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/val1m
(Yelp blog)

http://snipurl.com/val3a
(Wired.com)

http://snipurl.com/valie
(DMW previous coverage)

http://snipurl.com/valif
(DMW previous coverage)