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Comment by joe_the_user | Hacker News Reader

A simple thing would be for Google to de-list slander-based sites like the ones described in the article. Or just personal name search for things like that.

At the same time, it's remarkable that people put credence in completely random sites that let anyone post anything.

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Towards the end of the article they state this is what Googles has started to do with sites that make it hard to get false info removed (like requiring a fee).

That’s weird. Yelp still seems to feature prominently. Guess they’re still working on it.

Yelp does the opposite: they require money to get truthful info (bad reviews) removed.

We can't know which reviews are truthful. Presumably some are, some aren't. Obviously allowing the business owner to make that determination is dubious.

I can go and buy however many Yelp reviews I need right now, good or bad for as little as $5/review. Dig deeper and you realize Yelp uses the same tactics as the mafia in Italy to extort store owners and use heavy handed tactics.

Reviews are BS anyway, I don't know you therefore why on earth would I listen to your opinion on something?

>Reviews are BS anyway, I don't know you therefore why on earth would I listen to your opinion on something?

Because you trust them? Just as one can on news sites find a journalist that speaks to you, one can find and follow reviewers that do the same.

PS $5 a review? Seems expensive.

Right so you look for reviewers based on the same opinion as yours? Seems like a really crappy way to find new things no?

This strategy works, but only if you know the reviewer. Preferably personally.

Maybe knowing a reviewer actually personally would help it further by noting their consistencies or idiosyncrasies or honesty; but it's long winded method. You can glean a ton by following any person, honest/consistent or not, after all it's what's made social media owners so powerful.

>Right so you look for reviewers based on the same opinion as yours?<

Maybe reread my post, preferably in context.

On the other hand seems like a reasonable way to find some more examples of stuff that you know you and the other person likes.

Does Yelp actually ever say "pay us and we'll remove reviews"? Also reviews for a person are a little different than reviews for a business.

Yes, they have an army of "rogue salespeople" with "isolated incidents" doing this constantly.

I'm surprised they've allowed this to continue for as long as it has. At the very least they shouldn't be indexing low quality content from sites labeling someone a pedophile. That would go a long way towards stopping all but the most sophisticated of cranks - which the individual in the article clearly isn't.

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