Yelp Changes "Filtered Reviews"

[DaveO]

Yelp has made a slight change that hasn't gotten publicity.   It has to do with filtered reviews.

What was once called "filtered reviews" which showed at the bottom of the list of reviews  is now described as "xxx (a number) of other reviews that are not recommended".

When one clicks on the link to those reviews instead of a captcha the link directly takes you to those reviews.   Its slightly easier for a visitor to access these reviews.

From my quick scan of this with regard to some businesses and restaurants with a lot of "filtered reviews" I didn't see a difference or significant difference in the quantity of reviews that are not included in the top and whose rankings would be rated.

Its a subtle change and I couldn't find publicity on it.

[thistle]

Sometimes I read the filtered reviews, just for laughs. Usually, you can get a sense of the business from the posted reviews. It's just another tool to evaluate a business, & it helps, if you have no background info.. I like reading reviews on Yelp, although I read w/ a critical eye.

[lackadaisi]

I've read the nonrecommended reviews for bolt burger recently, and there are clearly more fakes in the recommended than the non.

[DonRocks]

I've read the nonrecommended reviews for bolt burger recently, and there are clearly more fakes in the recommended than the non.

Could you site a few URLs that are clear examples of fakes? I'd do it myself, but I honestly don't read Yelp.

This is for my own edification and education as much as anything.

[DaveO]

Reviews are tremendously powerful, incredibly controversial and, for a website, difficult to manage.  Consider the following:

1.  Faked positive reviews

2.  Faked negative reviews

3.  Negative reviews that try and destroy a business

4.  Assessing whether reviews are honest or not (its in the eyes of the beholder).  I'm sure our various businesses received purposeful attack reviews.  Try as I could I was unable to completely identify the people who did this.  (but I got close).   I interacted with a manager for one of the larger review sites, and pointed out a group of reviews I was certain were faked and purposefully crafted on behalf of the business.  The manager gave me an acceptable reason why they wouldn't take them down en masse.

5.  Political forces will unleash their politics on a business and slam it with reviews such as this example in Birmingham Alabama   If you go to the google reviews in that case and sort by worst or lowest rated reviews one can see the obvious political perspective.

They are wonderful to read...but highly controversial.

[DonRocks]

Reviews are tremendously powerful, incredibly controversial and, for a website, difficult to manage.  Consider the following:

1.  Faked positive reviews

2.  Faked negative reviews

3.  Negative reviews that try and destroy a business

4.  Assessing whether reviews are honest or not (its in the eyes of the beholder).  I'm sure our various businesses received purposeful attack reviews.  Try as I could I was unable to completely identify the people who did this.  (but I got close).   I interacted with a manager for one of the larger review sites, and pointed out a group of reviews I was certain were faked and purposefully crafted on behalf of the business.  The manager gave me an acceptable reason why they wouldn't take them down en masse.

5.  Political forces will unleash their politics on a business and slam it with reviews such as this example in Birmingham Alabama   If you go to the google reviews in that case and sort by worst or lowest rated reviews one can see the obvious political perspective.

They are wonderful to read...but highly controversial.

I think Yelp reviews are a lot like article "Comments" in large news media outlets. With these comments, you'll get 1-2 decent ones, and then it devolves quickly into Obama and Bush and Satan and hundreds-upon-hundreds of people spend hours-upon-hours completely wasting their time writing trash that will disappear into the ether forever.

That said, if someone (like we all know and love) knew how to moderate these massive amounts of comments, and then be able to mine them - they are potentially a huge, vast resource worth one heck of a lot of money; as they currently stand, they're worthless. In fact, I'll say they're sub-worthless because they detract from the reputations of their publications.

If any large medium ever wants my help, I'd be willing to talk, mainly because I *hate* seeing such enormous amounts of energy completely wasted. And you'd have the world's first domesticated tiger. (Sorry for the plug - I got sidetracked.)

[DaveO]

I think Yelp reviews are a lot like article "Comments" in large news media outlets. With these comments, you'll get 1-2 decent ones, and then it devolves quickly into Obama and Bush and Satan and hundreds-upon-hundreds of people spend hours-upon-hours completely wasting their time writing trash that will disappear into the ether forever.

That said, if someone (like we all know and love) knew how to moderate these massive amounts of comments, and then be able to mine them - they are potentially a huge, vast resource worth one heck of a lot of money; as they currently stand, they're worthless. In fact, I'll say they're sub-worthless because they detract from the reputations of their publications.

If any large medium ever wants my help, I'd be willing to talk, mainly because I *hate* seeing such enormous amounts of energy completely wasted. And you'd have the world's first domesticated tiger. (Sorry for the plug - I got sidetracked.)

Don: I believe Yelp has over 42 million reviews.

That is a lot of moderating.

[DonRocks]

Don: I believe Yelp has over 42 million reviews.

That is a lot of moderating.

Don: I believe Yelp has over 42 million reviews.

That is a lot of moderating.

Yes, it's too late for them.

There could be some more sophisticated data mining done, however.