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Yelp.com (2004-) - A California-Based Review Website, Widely Accused of Extortion in Building Their Business


DonRocks

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4 hours ago, dcs said:

Not All Restaurateurs Shun Yelp. Some Are Obsessed With The Free Advice.  By Laura Hayes, August, 30, 2018, on washingtoncitypaper.com.

We Ate at Three of the Worst-Rated DC Restaurants on Yelp. Here’s What Happened.  By Mimi Montgomery, August 29, 2018, on washingtonian.com.  This cracked me up.

I enjoyed both articles.  As a business operator I agree with the content in the first article wherein those quoted explained their approach.   Long before the web the Arlington Bar School asked graduating students for "reviews" comments/ a grade.  We did and do exactly what some quoted in the article stated:  If we repeatedly heard certain criticisms or complaints in a short period we would endeavor to fix that issue.  Its excellent feedback.  If many reviews repeat this item isn't salted enough or similar types of comments it is great feedback to make adjustments.  If the criticisms stop you have solved the issue.  Frankly that is a great process for any business in any environment.  As a reviewer I'm gratified to hear that certain operators take the comments to heart and will act on them. 

I've further heard from various grads of the school that employers do far more.   I've heard repeatedly over the years covering a wide spectrum of employers that if a FOH employee gets their name attached to a 5 star review they  will be  financially rewarded.  If their name is attached to a 1 star review there will be consequences.  I started hearing this several years ago, I continue to hear it on occasion. 

From the operator perspective I have plenty of other issues and problems with Yelp.  Also in one context I see Yelp as the search engine underdog.  Google has targeted yelp and tripadvisor and limited their visibility while replacing them with their own reviews and descriptors.  The google content and processes are copied from Yelp and TripAdvisor.  Google is the enormous search monopoly: all other entities are tiny and relatively insignificant. 

On the irksome bs side of things, by example, currently the Yelp page for the Arlington Bartending School has either 57 or 58 reviews.  Only 12 show.  Currently 45 or 46 are "filtered"/not counting toward a score and not visible.  They are overwhelmingly great.

Yelp gives us some bs about their "algo" ---blah blah blah.   Last time a salesperson called about advertising they ran me through a tedious long piece of yak yak about their new programs.  In the course of that they showed me a bartending school in another city with 30-40 + reviews showing.  SUBTLE--as a hammer on the head.  If we purchased advertising most of those 45 hidden reviews would become visible.  But we don't deem spending with them worthwhile.  NO SPEND= NO VISIBILITY OF MANY GREAT REVIEWS.

The second article was a hoot.  Kudos to the author for venturing into those places.  BTW:  Friday's DC and Hooters DC have been around for a long time.

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13 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Jeremy Stoppelman is on NPR right now claiming that Google is a monopoly.

What a load of BS.

I’m on the road (not accessible) to NPR so I can’t listen to the discussion but I would agree 1000 per cent with that assessment .

The assessment being that of Stoppleman that Google is a monopoly.   The last recent analysis of percentage of search volume being well over 90%!!!

Source

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Here is the interview from NPR.  Article

I am acutely aware that Yelp has a rightfully owned miserable reputation.   Regardless their CEO and others would acknowledge they are 100% on target in calling google a monopoly.   4 years ago the WSJ wrote this article addressing how Fed researchers found google was attacking Yelp back in 2012.  Regardless of the findings the Obama administration decided not to prosecute.  Subsequent to that despite promises and as the majority of web traffic transitioned from desktop to mobile, Google crushed yelp on mobile....just crushed them.   It clearly violated the results and promises of the 2012 findings.  

Yelp has taken a beating from Google.   Somehow it survives.  

I have probably taken about 80 calls from yelp salepeople.  (80= a rough guess for a number of businesses.)  Haven't spent a dime with them.  Some of their salespeople have been professional some somewhat ugly....though I never heard one "threaten" or coerce us as others have experienced.  In many ways google does more or less of the worst that yelp does....they just don't get blamed.  Google has a teflon coating.  If I had to testify I could cite about 4,5,6,maybe 7 precise episodes wherein Google was using its monopoly power to misrepresent results and processes while making more money.  Among other things, on the web, they are more powerful than the government and can make or break businesses.

Here is a graph showing the growth of their advertising revenues  graph

Amazing growth.   It has crushed the print/newspaper industry  

In any case there is no doubt google controls the world of search...it is a question of whether the feds choose to do anything about it.

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1 hour ago, DaveO said:

In any case there is no doubt google controls the world of search...it is a question of whether the feds choose to do anything about it.

Oh,  I don't think there's any doubt that Google is something of a monopoly, but for *that* guy to be calling the kettle black after his little fiefdom got handed back to him? You never heard him bitching when Yelp was the only (national) game in town, and they were consistently showing #1 on all Google searches.

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