MySpace Local Launches (with help from CitySearch)

MySpace has launched a local section of their site, using Citysearch data (although it looks more like a White Label than Co-Brand integration). Most of it seems focused on reviews, which puts them in competition with Yelp as a local social review site. I'm not sure if the reviews will be 2-way (publishing back to CitySearch), though I imagine they won't, as MySpace tries to build some footprint in the area. I think this makes a lot of sense for MySpace, to keep users on the site, provide them more valuable content and information to share, and CitySearch is the right partner for them. There are a lot of local content providers they could have worked with, but looking at MySpace's core demo, the categories that most YP providers focus on (home services, dentists, doctors, etc) are not as relevant as Restaurants and Entertainment, which are CitySearch's focus. It will be interesting to watch what happens with this, but it could be really successful.

MySpace and Citysearch Team Up to Challenge Yelp

Yelp's Entering Dangerous Territory

(image from the East Bay Express)

I posted a while ago about the issues with reviews and the things you have to concern yourself with in the generation of that kind of content. In the local space, Yelp is definitely the leader in review content, but a while back they had an article written about them (more than one actually) indicating that they basically engage in extortion, offering to remove bad reviews only if advertisers pay them and removing good reviews for those who don't.

After that initial wave of stories came out, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman came out and vehemently denied them. He posted on their blog and stated they were outright lies. However, the stories didn't stop coming and now a new story has been posted (by the same person writing the original one) naming names of businesses that received this treatment and going into a lot of detail about these practices (even naming salespeople). I have no idea whether this is true or not, but even allegations of impropriety like this can permanently damage a business. Stoppelman really needs to come forward and, if this is true, needs to be clear about it, make a mea culpa, and outline how they are going to make sure it doesn't happen again. If it isn't true, he needs to go open kimono and show the world just how their process works, so he once and for all disproves this before it gains (additional) life of its own. It may not be the best option, but this could go downhill quickly.

East Bay Express | News | Yelp Extortion Allegations Stack Up

User-Generated Reviews and Their Impact on Local

We talked about reviews and the ability for businesses to respond to them last week. Today on Valleywag, there was some discussion of a company possibly offering to push negative reviews to the bottom if businesses bought a paid ad with them (I'm not mentioning the company's name here, because Valleywag thinks this was just a rogue salesperson, not a real policy of that company).

However, this brings up some of the complexities of reviews and serving two masters: users and businesses. For users to really find the reviews content useful, it has to be real information that cannot be "bought" by businesses. Of course, if this is the case and a business already has significant numbers of negative reviews on a given site, it will make it more difficult to sell paid products to that business.

On the other side of the coin, there have been stories about consumers/users threatening businesses with negative reviews if they don't get what they want (which many times includes them demanding free product or the like). This is the downside of user generated reviews. While they give users the ability to provide information to others, there will always be some that abuse them.

So how can businesses solve this problem? To me, the answer is twofold:

1. Do the best you can to keep your customers happy. This may seem simple, but if you want good reviews, provide good service.
2. Promote your customers' involvement on the sites where you advertise (and for sites, this means give businesses the means to promote you on-site). Put up stickers in your window letting consumers know where to post reviews. Tell your staff to promote this (especially to happy customers). Happy customers will go out of their way to send you more business, but you need to give them the means to do so.

Finally, as we talked about last week, it is important that sites provide businesses with the means to respond to negative reviews and even challenge their validity from time to time. The purer the review system the better, but as local Internet companies, we always have to balance the needs of all of our constitutents.

Commentards: Yelp protection racket alleged by anonymous cowards

iPhone Food Apps

Mashable has a writeup of 21 iPhone food apps, most of which are restaurant finders and reviews. Their review of the YPMobile App? "When worse comes to worse, hit up the Yellow Pages". They also had some good apps I haven't heard of, like one that includes the menus of many popular restaurants. A good read if you're looking for new apps for your iPhone or just want to see what your competitors are doing.

21 iPhone Food Apps to Eat Your Heart Out

Advertiser feedback on negative reviews

Today, Greg Sterling asks if the ability for advertisers to provide feedback on negative reviews is the future of reviews. I tend to agree with him that it's the future of online reviews, but it's also the past of reviews. Why do I say that? Because this is what eBay has been doing for years. As we all know, feedback is the key to the success of eBay's marketplace. Without trust in the buyer/seller you're dealing with, their system will not work.

However, as with local sites, one negative review can really impact your business on eBay, so they needed ways to deal with that negative feedback. The first thing they do is that they have the ability for users (sellers especially) to dispute negative feedback, although this ability is used sparingly. The ability for the seller to respond to negative feedback is really the main tool they have to keey their rating solid.

As IYPs and other local sites prepare for the next stage in their evolution, content is going to be critical, and reviews are a big part of that content. Local sites implementing reviews need to make sure they're not just slapped into the site, but that they are built with thought behind them, processes to support them, and the ability to get the advertisers involved and engaged. As we've seen from Merchant Circle's infamous launch strategy, negative feedback on a website is always a strong impetus for advertisers to get involved.

Is This the Future of Online Reviews? « Screenwerk