Slashdot Mirror
Restauranteurs Say Yelp Uses Extortion To Ply Ad Sales
Readers Mike Van Pelt and EricThegreen point out a story in the East Bay Express alleging that online restaurant review site Yelp is doing more than providing a nice interface for foodies to share their impressions of restaurants. Instead, says the article, representatives from the site have called restaurants in the Bay area to solicit advertising, but with an interesting twist: the ad sales reps let restaurant owners know that, if they buy advertising at around $300 a month, Yelp can "do something" about prominently displayed negative reviews of their restaurants. If the claims are true, it sure lowers my opinion of Yelp, which I'd thought of as one of the good guys (and a useful site). I wonder how many other online review sites might be doing something similar.
In related news, Yelp has announced that it has reached a $300 cross-advertising relationship with Slashdot to "do something" about a prominently displayed news item.
Maybe you wants them to go away, Precious?
Free Martian Whores!
Okay, babelfish translated this as:
You have given to my restaurant a defective review in order to formulate inadequate the sexual observations. But I have given to your mother five stars for the warm sex of the monkey!
"Warm sex of the monkey" was about how the food tasted...
Founder, Americans Allied Against Alliteration
Anyone else have this experience?
Of spending Valentine's day with a female? No, sorry...
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?