Armchair Critics

Yelp Shames a Handful of Businesses That Tried to Game the System

Now if only they'd spent the money on ads on Yelp...
Now if only they’d spent the money on ads on Yelp…

Not that Yelp Elite members need any more reason to feel full of themselves, but it’s become an all-too-common practice for businesses to actually solicit them on Craigslist to write positive reviews for cash. Today, Yelp is launching a new shaming program to address this particular type of cheat, exposing eight businesses that have solicited fake reviews and posting a big warning on their pages with a link to screenshots of their e-mail solicitations. What good is this going to do? Eh, probably not a lot, given the many thousands of businesses out there who have had their friends pad their reviews with artificial raves and the unscrupulous Yelp Elite members who offer up their services in person, in exchange for free dinners and such. Not to mention that the amount of policing they can conceivably do, nationwide, amounts to a fraction of a drop in a bucket. [NYT, Earlier]

Yelp Shames a Handful of Businesses That Tried to Game the System