"If you sifted carefully through the data, though, you could find patterns, and Moskowitz learned that most people's preferences fell into one of three broad groups: plain, spicy, and extra-chunky"[1]
Which tells me that since Yelp tries to aggregate everyone's taste into one unified rating metric, the tastes from which Yelp ratings are derived are quite likely to be different from those of my own.
Thus I really can't trust Yelp ratings, even if there were no 'gaming' or 'extortion' going on in their reviews.
I think the most useful reviews are textual ones which set out the interests and prejudices of the writer (sometimes inadvertently), and elaborate on why they like or don't like this particular place/thing, which can give you clues about their lifestyle, tastes, and even whether they were hired by the company to write this review in the first place! I'm always suspicious of reviews which say something is great and then list several selling points as if they were read from a brochure - not many people write like that without prompting and it's a good way to find fakes.
Unfortunately another problem as outlined in that article is that even if you managed to completely represent the views of others, you'd find that many of them were simply uninteresting to you, as they are based on false premises or different tastes. That's where social rating systems become more important; where you can decide whose ratings you trust (not necessarily friends), and use those to make decisions - I still think you need the complexity of written reviews to really flesh out people's opinions though. We have a few ideas on this over at coolplaces, but have not yet had time to take them anywhere. Trust does require that you identify with a person's tastes, and also that you know they are real, so using a network of like-minded people built up over time can help mollify the concerns you have about yelp reviews.
Thanks for the great article linked, I've not had time to finish it but it really does cover this subject in depth from a different perspective.
(My friend used to work in the food/restaurant business and had hundreds of restaurants in the area as customers, plus I've known him for 15+ years now so he is an ideal guy to ask for recommendations for me)
I'll also point you to Gladwell's TED talk on the same subject. He's a wonderful storyteller with a very distinct style: http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce...
Looks like they didn't have sufficient data 3 years ago, but I imagine the prospects might be a little better now.
I have a similar pet peeve with brownies. There are three major types: Cake, fudge or chewy. I do not prefer any type of cake brownie.
Yelp is just a shitty company.
As far as I can tell, there was a class action lawsuit against Yelp, which was dismissed, and a couple of other lawsuits from single business owners. I would imagine that any company the size of Yelp is going to get sued a few times, and I imagine a lot, if not all of those, are just bad small businesses.
Are you just scurrilously slinging mud, based on a single headline you read sometime in the past?
I find Yelp to be quite useful, and the people who I have met that worked there were good, hard-working souls.
Wow, that is scary if true.
And Obama is a liar: https://www.google.com/search?q=obama+liar
And Romney too: https://www.google.com/search?q=romney+liar
Search engines give you what you search for.
And I'll leave politics alone.
Er... they are.
"What’s to stop someone from going and soliciting fake positive reviews for a competitor’s restaurant, in order for them to be publicly shamed?"
Granted, not exactly something that would restore your faith in Yelp...
Anyone who bases all their dining decisions on what people post to sites like Yelp is not going to have as rich an experience as people who mastered the "old ways" (i.e. personal knowledge not acquired online). Why? Because Yelp is _primarily_ for people who want to complain. And _primarily_ for people who have no taste or worldly experience but who want to post things to the web (tech savvy). There are exceptions, but c'mon, let's be real. The web is the ultimate gripe channel.
Don't believe me? Try basing all your decisions on Yelp. You will not eat as well the the guy who has a sincere interest in restaurants and understands how to use the "old ways". There's certainly potential for such knowledgeable people to come together at a site and produce something amazing: balanced, informative, _informed_ reviews. The web is an amazing instrument for information excehange. But Yelp is not such a site. Their "business" relies lots of complainers who usually (have tech savvy but) have no taste, and on the restaurateur's fear of a fool with a megaphone.
Yelp is going to find themselves boxed in on this. Google has already been down this road with links, and they've taken the stand that "no link can hurt you" because it's too easy for competitors to manipulate that.
PLEASE WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW FOR YELP.
They are a great company and their recommendations are consistently amazing.
Anyone who says that Yelp tried to extort money from them to remove negative reviews is whining and the negative reviews are all accurate.
PLEASE WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW FOR YELP.
PLEASE WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW FOR YELP.
