Comments on: Are “Rating” Sites That Accept Ads Destined To Be Sued, Even For RICO? Welcome to the World of Yelp.com

By: MHB

MHB — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:11:08 +0000

Stewart

RICO has be filed as a criminal charge by the state or as a civil claim bought by plaintiff which this is the case here

By: stewart

stewart — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:57:49 +0000

if no one has filed a RICO aganist Nelson Brady (aka halvarez)why would any one ever think the feds would file in this example? just a headline teaser here I suppose?

By: Steve M

Steve M — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:53:32 +0000

Well, discovery should prove interesting…

Yelp! indeed.

By: BusinessWebsites.com

BusinessWebsites.com — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:23:44 +0000

For most niche business’s advertising on yelp does not work as well as it should because it is category based not keyword based. Hence the money you spend on Yelp is better off going toward a well crafted PPC campaign or SEO first. Once this is accomplished and optimized than you can move onto Yelp, CitySearch & Others.

Whether Yelp is in violation of the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) will be determined by the courts.

I’ve heard and seen reviews disappear off yelp multiple times for multiple businesses. Some of these were suspiciously close to the points when said business was in conversation with Yelp about advertising.

However I like this quote from WSJ also: “These misconceptions are also fueled by lawyers, who may have heard about Yelp’s recent financing round and may be seeking a share,” he wrote.

By: npcomplete

npcomplete — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:20:29 +0000

This sounds like a slippery slope. Imagine if you will a Search Engine company, where in some sense the position in the search results might be viewed as a “Rating”. Suppose further that the Search Engine company sold ads as part of their business model.

The question might arise as to whether ad purchases have an impact on placement (ratings) in search results. Just sayin’…

In the Yelp case this will be an interesting one to follow.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:36:27 +0000

I have found that the majority of rating sites are very unreliable sources for reviews. Besides these problems with yelp you get very conflicting reviews that probably come from the owner of the business patting himself on the back and then the competitor down the street saying how crappy that same business is. All this done as customers who have supposed to had these experiences. Can all get very frustrating for the consumer.

By: Jeevan

Jeevan — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:22:30 +0000

It’s common thing with big websites such as Yelp. Money talks $$$$