In This Episode Of The Haggler: gaming Yelp.
As a consumer review Web site, Yelp and Influential Is So Big That It has Given Rise to a small, semi-underground group of entrepreneurs Who, for a fee, Will post a rave about your company. Others Will post a negative review about your rivals.
Yes, then this is very sneaky, and it's a problem for Continuing Yelp, Which Is locked in a "Spy vs.. Spy "-style contest With fake reviewers. Let's see how the contest That IS going by looking at, of all things, the Field of dentistry.
"I Was in Need of teeth whitening and my friend Referred me to Southland Dental," Begin thumbs-up for a clinic in Sherman Oaks, Calif.. Then There's A Description Of The whitening procedure Favored by Southland, and this closer: "Pain or no pain, It Was very much worth it.I can not stop staring at my bright smile in the mirror. "
This reads like a rave is Yelp, But It's Actually a sample from a help-wanted ad On Another site - specifically, Mechanical Turk, a Web site owned by Amazon.com and a place WHERE invites companies "Mechanical Turk workers" - Thousands are registered, worldwide - to complete What Could Be Described as microtasks. Each country has tiny sum task. In the case of Southland Dental Workers Were Asked to write a fake, five-star review and post it to Southland's Yelp page for Which Would THEY earn 25 cents.
Obviously, Mechanical Turk work is Not a quick path to the rich. Panagiotis G. Ipeirotis, year associate professor of information, operations and management science at The Stern School of Business at New York University, Who has studied du site, says historical polling of Turk Workers found That Many Were based in India and Often Earned $ 2 to $ 3 an Hour .
The Southland WAS ad posted about a year and a half ago by Rony Mirzaian, marketing director at Softline Solutions, a Los Angeles company That Provides a range of online services, Including reputation management.
Last week, Mr. Mirzaian The Ad Described as "an experiment" he undertook to help a onetime client, a dentist named Southland Delaram Hanookai, though Mr. Mirzaian Said The dentist did "not know of gold APPROVe The Ad. He Said Dr. Hanookai HAD HIM Hired To Do Online Reputation Management - For Him Mostly Which entailed building blogs stuffed With content related to him or.
Dr. says she Hanookai Hired Softline Solutions to Maximize visibility of The Southland's Web site and WAS appalled to learn That Her dental clinic as part of WAS Used "an experiment."
Did The ad work? Well, Two five-star reviews are about Southland Southland Currently there's Yelp page, and one four-star review.Eight one-star reviews are posted aussi. In all, Southland has a two-star average.
Additionally, Yelp's algorithm have filtered out 22 fake reviews. The Haggler Because Yelp knows this, Rather brilliantly, allow users to see reviews filtered, Which we are linked page.
Nearly All the reviews are filtered Southland Panting five-star commendation. One Was Written by year Eleanor L small personal loans., Who Said She Went in for a cleaning and 12 Months Later Reported Her With The total work satisfaction, Which included "12 gingival grafts, 10 veneers; Two implants had sinus lift, and ... oh I can not remember Everything! "
Exactly How Many Of These five-star reviews filtered Were Paid For and How Many Were from real patients Is Hard to say. A Southland dentist, Michael Abaian, Said In An Interview That Many occasionally testy history of HAD patients posted positive reviews about The Clinic, Only To Have Them HAD filtered.
"I have over 2,000 patients, and Every Other Week One of Them writes a positive review is Yelp and none of 'em stick!" He said. "Businesses are at The Mercy of Yelp."
A media representative from Yelp, Vince Sollitto, Would not Discuss The company's algorithm, He Said, Because That Kind Of Information only encouraged chicanery. Showing filtered Yelp reviews Visitors invited to make up Their Own Minds Which posts are about real and fake, On The Theory That No CAD algorithm parses the Difference unerringly, he explained.
"Our job IS to find and filter out fake reviews," he said. "At The Same Time We Let Our Know That hearing this system isn't perfect. Some content might get filtered Legitimate and Illegitimate content Some Might sneak through. We're working hard at it. It's a tough one. "
It Might Be Getting Tougher.Unlike was Amazon, Which Strive to keep spam-free Mechanical Turk, A Handful of sites let users boast of Yelp Freely-gaming prowess.
Among Them Fiverr.com IS, WHERE people advertise tasks They Are Willing to Perform for five bucks. A recent ad posted by "Katmoney" - many job seekers use Pseudonyms - Offered to write convincing negative reviews posted to a Yelp page of your Choosing.
Asked year for example, feels this Katmoney pan, Whicher, Strangely enough, Took loved at a dental office: "I guess if you need a cavity filled you-can go here. OTHERWISE, If you need more extensive work done I'd look Elsewhere. "
That review shows up verbatim On The Yelp page of Hempstead in Queens Family Dental, in a review Written by Someone Identified as Helena X.
Hempstead Is The office of a single practitioner, Dr. Ahmed Elkady, year elderly immigrant from Egypt.He Said Never Heard Of Yelp he'd and Could not imagine Who Would hire anyone to post a negative review about fake service history.
"It's slow here, always," he said. "I'm seeing Two patients today, Both of Whom are friends of mine."
The Haggler Katmoney Asked if he / she X. Were Helena, and, if so, Why he / she HAD posted a fake review about Hempstead.
The answer is Not printable in this newspaper.
E-mail: haggler@nytimes.com. Keep it brief and family-friendly, and Go Easy On The caps-lock key. Letters May Be edited for clarity and length.
