Yahoo allows anyone to "Review This Merchant"

And I'm really angry at Yahoo for its irresponsibility

[pshea]

I noticed a couple of entries in the logs from shopping.yahoo.com. Backing it up, I see one of my products at the top of the list, great, but then a hyperlink after the product description to "Review this Merchant". All you have to have is a Yahoo email account and you can review anyone on the internet!

This is such a poorly-thought out addition to the Yahoo brand. I know Alexa and others do it, but I've blown them off; they don't have the stature of a Yahoo. But Yahoo now has a certain number of responsibilities to its webmasters and users. And, in my mind, it cannot just let anyone with a email account make public comments about a website and its products or services.

I do not have a Yahoo store and have not in any way made a service level agreement with Yahoo. They have no right to create an mechanism which enables ANYONE to masquerade as a customer of an online product or service provider.

If you agree, we better let them know this with a LOUD voice. I will be picking up the phone tomorrow.

-pshea

[blaze]

I dunno, Amazon has been getting away with something like this for forever.

I am also suprised that PayPal hasn't done something like this. I guess they don't want to steal the thunder of eBay...

I suppose Yahoo needs to create a trust network, like what Amazon or Epinions have so that we have an inkling of how valuable someone's opinion is.

But the fact is, as merchants we may hate it, but in the long run the short term pain is good for all of us. This sort of thing, when done right, goes a long way to reducing fraud and increasing consumer trust.

And if consumers feel comfortable about buying off the internet the merchants among us that have valid products and services will be duly rewarded.

[pshea]

After looking into this more in the past few hours, it seems as though I did have a yahoo store for like 5 minutes. I signed up and fooled around with it for an evening, then cancelled it. I assume this was the trigger that started it. I still don't like the idea that anyone can review anybody else, but at least I'm not so angry with yahoo anymore tonight. G'night all.

[SEOMike]

pshea-

Why are you so mad? Just get 15 or 20 accounts and fill yourself up with good comments!

Haha, keep doing that and I gaurentee that Yahoo will make some changes as to who can leave feedback!