Yelp Extortion Accusations Ignite a War of Words

20.02.2009
A California newspaper says online review site Yelp --and now, Yelp is fighting back against the accusations. Watch out, Web watchers: This cyberfight could get ugly.

Let's Get Ready to Rumble...

The whole thing started with published Wednesday by the , an alternative weekly based in (a small town located about four miles southwest of Berkeley). The story, titled "," makes some bold claims about Yelp's business practices.

"During interviews with dozens of business owners over a span of several months, six people told this newspaper that Yelp sales representatives promised to move or remove negative reviews if their business would advertise," states the writer, Kathleen Richards. "In another six instances, positive reviews disappeared--or negative ones appeared--after owners declined to advertise."

The article goes on to cite a handful of Bay Area business owners, the majority of whom are quoted anonymously, as saying Yelp's reps tried to coerce them into buying ads by offering to "fix" their bad reviews in exchange. The accusations aren't pretty, either: One sentence compares Yelp to the Mafia, vaguely citing "several business owners" as having made the claim.

The remaining 4500 words--yeah, this isn't exactly a read for the weary-eyed--meander around that same theme, albeit in a slightly convoluted way. A man claiming to be a former Yelp employee, for instance, talks about the negative "spirit" within Yelp's walls and how the site seems to have an awful lot of hostile reviews. It gets a bit difficult to determine if the story is meant to be an exposé of the supposed extortion, or just a general bashing of all things Yelp.