lexipixel - 6:23 pm on Apr 6, 2010 (gmt 0)

"Paid reviewers" polluted the data early on. They seeded the listings and then allowed their sales people to tell business owners they could clean up the page if they paid for it, (e.g.- bury the bad reviews).

This was a planned strategy. They had them write mostly NEGATIVE reviews as there would be no incentive for a business to pay if it was all or mostly positive already.

Basically sales by extortion in my book -- nice money maker... if you have no ethics and want no credibility.

To me the name says; "We'll make business [pay or] Yelp!"

I question all their reviews, (good or bad), which makes the "service" useless.