Yelp is coming clean.
The review site filters comments — Yelp has admitted that. But it denies removing reviews to favor or punish businesses that do or don’t advertise on the site.
Still, citing a need for transparency, Yelp is allowing users to view comments filtered out by the site. It’s also discontinuing an advertising-package feature that lets businesses label a review as a “favorite.”
“We’re hoping that giving people the ability to ‘look under the hood,’ so to speak, will offer additional validation and transparency to the mechanisms that keep Yelp useful and relevant to consumers,” Yelp officials wrote in an email to listed business today.
That’s a big step for Yelp, which has recently come under legal fire. Some business owners say Yelp tried to strong-arm them into advertising. Critics say the company removes positive reviews if businesses turn them down, and lets advertising clients remove negative reviews — or at least move them to the bottom of the list.
But Yelp says that’s not how it works. The filter removes comments perceived to be malicious in nature — say, posted by an employee or a competitor.
And the “favorite review” feature was clearly labeled as an advertising incentive, according to Yelp.
“Despite our best efforts to educate consumers and the small business community, myths about Yelp have persisted,” Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman wrote in a blog post. “We’ve said all along we believe these incorrect notions stem from the combination of the filter and this advertising feature — and we’re practicing what we preach. Lifting the veil on our review filter and doing away with “Favorite Review” will make it even clearer that displayed reviews on Yelp are completely independent of advertising — or any sort of manipulation. We also hope it will demonstrate the importance of a safeguard such as our filter and the unique challenge we face daily to maintain the integrity of the review content on our site.”
How do you feel about the changes? Do you have any doubt about Yelp’s credibility? Does this do anything to earn your trust back?
Know a small business you think we should write about? Contact Herald writer Amy Rolph at arolph@heraldnet.com.
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