Going forward, the popular local business-review site will also now let users see reviews that have been removed by
its "review filter," which is designed to help prevent business owners from posting malicious reviews of competitors or glowing reviews of their own company. And while Yelp denies the allegations, the
fact that its system of operations sparked such controversy seems problem enough for many industry watchers.
"With words like 'extortion' being thrown around and a slew of new
location-based services cropping up, Yelp had to become more transparent," writes Mashable. Problem is, "By making all filtered
reviews so easily accessible, there is also a risk that [Yelp's] secret sauce becomes a bit more apparent (and hence, easier to game)."
In a blog post, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman even conceded that the "favorite review" feature "led some
people to the wrong conclusions."
Says The New York Times' Bits blog, "Some of the features that confuse and irritate businesses will remain." It's talking about Yelp's spam
filter, which, according to Stoppelman, "will continue to sometimes remove legitimate reviews, for example, "Yelp will continue to rank reviews according to a secret formula that takes into account not just the date but metrics like how prolific a reviewer is."
According to GigaOm, Yelp also plans to form a Small Business Advisory Council, "and it has already
incorporated feedback from meetings with business owners, such as including advertiser videos on their profile pages (a feature that also launched today)."