Comments on Eric Nakamura: Yelp!

I guarantee that now Giant Robot will start to get...

2007-12-20T12:19:00.000-08:00

I guarantee that now Giant Robot will start to get bad reviews on Yelp. Yelp seems to use extortion tactics to get ad revenue... hurting businesses that don't buy ads by moving bad reviews to the top of the list. They can do this with their "automated sorting method" which is a "proprietary algorithm" that is supposed to move "most useful" reviews to the top. The arbitrary "Recent + Votes" sort allows Yelp to manipulate which reviews are at the top of the list.

Yelp seems to be positive although it's a user run...

2007-12-20T00:44:00.000-08:00

Yelp seems to be positive although it's a user run site, so therefore should be fairly neutral, and ultimately we use it as a source of reviews and information about a place, shop, etc. But it just feels good to use it. So I was a bit surprised that Yelp would represent themselves this way. It's the almightly dollar that does it. How much commission do you think "Brent" makes? His job is to milk every possible avenue. Is it his fault? Is his tact a result of some past success where he conned someone into doing an ad? Maybe he's forced to do it this way. Who knows. I remember him or another rep telling me after I said, "we can't spend on this ad." He came back with, "it's not an expense, it's an investment." Uh, common, so is a $6,000 Rolex, $2,000 pair of Pigeon Dunks, or a $80,000 Mercedes if it gets you somewhere on time, right?

Interesting that yelp represents itself as a "comm...

2007-12-19T23:18:00.000-08:00

Interesting that yelp represents itself as a "community" website of sorts with voices from the community. But obviously profit is very important here. And we all do have to make a living, but hopefully we can find ways to do that in less obnoxious ways than others.

Good point Rod. It's not completely private, and i...

2007-12-19T22:22:00.000-08:00

Good point Rod. It's not completely private, and it's a dickish email that's bordering spam. I don't know this guy except he's called, and if you're going to come at someone like this, and be a dick, you gotta accept the consequences. It's part of being that sleazy ad sales guy. Does he really know me, does he know what I really think? It's like saying, "You like the breathe right? So you should buy my air." I've been very generous so far and really, haven't wrote the true shit it deserves.

it's a lame email to be sure.... but why the publi...

2007-12-19T20:23:00.000-08:00

it's a lame email to be sure.... but why the public airing of a private email?

Bad, but the weird thing is this Brent dude called...

2007-12-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

Bad, but the weird thing is this Brent dude called, he's talked to me on the phone, I've told him, no, we can't afford to advertise there. So he's just relentless, condescending, and I guess just an ass at least at work. I don't know what else to say about the guy. It's not quite spam though.

That comes off as a straight-up marketing "cold ca...

2007-12-19T13:54:00.000-08:00

That comes off as a straight-up marketing "cold call" type of email. There's nothing in it that suggests Brent knows anything about GR.

Either that or Yelp has a broken SPAM email generating program based on the piss-poor spelling and grammar.

PR people. Aren't they the worst?

2007-12-19T10:25:00.000-08:00

PR people. Aren't they the worst?

yeah, fuck you brent

2007-12-19T09:47:00.000-08:00

yeah, fuck you brent