[dhcar]

I've also seen this first hand, except rather than a bad review, a bunch of 5 star reviews were made invisible. 3.5 stars on yelp vs 4.8 on google. From then on I've always used google ratings instead of yelp, which also has the benefit of being integrated well into the maps app.

[krisdol]

Yelp reviews contain more content than any other service, whereas most google reviews I read that have anything more than a star rating come from illiterate or barely-literate foreign reviewers. My wife had a time period when every one of her reviews on yelp was flagged even though she put a ton of effort into her writing, whereas I never had a problem. Their spam/business-owner detection system catches a lot of false-positives, but that doesn't make the ones that do make it through necessarily worse. Verifying an email address and linking with facebook (although not necessary), and having friends helps reviews on yelp not get auto-flagged.

I usually dive into reviews and see what people are saying, not just go by a star rating. It adds to the hilarity when you read a 1-star review for a restaurant because they "are scumbags who serve lion" (actually, a menu item had dandelions on the side) or because someone drove by and saw a balkan restaurant "roasting a dog on a stick" (actually, it was lamb, but I had a great laugh).

[mjevans]

Facebook should not be the basis of a web of trust.

[krisdol]

I don't disagree. I also think their automatic flagging system is too aggressive and opaque partly because of such things having influence.

[astral303]

Google ratings are much easier to game, from what I hear