[Reno89519]

EXTORTION. I had them come to me, sidelining 5 positive reviews for my company saying I must have written them myself. Then suggested if I paid for advertising, the reviews would get proper recognition.

[boycott]

I have never like Yelp. I travel all the time and find it pretty useless.

[Paladin2]

What is this “Yelp”?

[Fungi]

You expect something new like Yelp, a product of the Internet age to be truthful, fair and unbiased? Think again. It's the human factor, a factor that will never change.

[jcon40]

We pay for their services and get quite a bit of business from their site at our restaurant.

We look at it as advertising that works

[Organic Panic]

I have found tripadvisor dot com pretty reliable. I don’t do yelp.

[SoFloFreeper]

I know a small business owner who has been approached by Yelp.

Seemed to be totally overpriced....they avoided Yelp like the plague.

[goodwithagun]

I prefer Urban Spoon.

[martin_fierro]

FTC ends inquiry into manipulated reviews on Yelp

I had recommended a local small business via Yelp back in 2010 or so.

That business owner later told me that Yelp had approached her with the same extortionate approach mentioned here.

I then did a little online research and turned up a WSJ blog post that echoed the business owner's experience.

I then posted a review of Yelp, on Yelp, complaining about their skeevy practices, based on the above.

That review is now -- surprise! -- missing at Yelp.