Comments on: Fake Reviews Starting to Get Mainstream Media Attention http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/03/02/fake-reviews-starting-to-get-mainstream-media-attention/ Developing Knowledge about Local Search Tue, 21 May 2013 17:43:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Mike http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/03/02/fake-reviews-starting-to-get-mainstream-media-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-546200 Mike Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:12:56 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=9404#comment-546200 @Andy
One would hope that spam abatement all around but particulary at Google will improve. At the present it seems to catch as many good reviews as bad.

Interestingly Google recently noted in the forums that in their spam abatement efforts they were effectively blocking owner responses…. how weird is that?

]]> By: Andy Kuiper http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/03/02/fake-reviews-starting-to-get-mainstream-media-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-546198 Andy Kuiper Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:03:43 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=9404#comment-546198 I like this reporter’s style – no need to go and visit the hotel in L A that had a cropped picture of their pool. No this guy focuses in on …”a luxury resort in Costa Rica promising sweeping views of the oceans. So we went to Costa Rica, one of the most popular vacation spots in the world to check it out for ourselves…” And this Billy guy – OMG! what a creep. Fake reviews are a real issue and I do hope Places can learn to deal with them in a efficient way. I’m not a big fan of Yelp though, its filters are wacky.

]]> By: Kathy Sammons http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/03/02/fake-reviews-starting-to-get-mainstream-media-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-546194 Kathy Sammons Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:21:20 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=9404#comment-546194 This is really getting to be a huge problem. I have seen that Yelp does a pretty good job of getting rid of reviews that it thinks are fake.

One of the trainings that I took for Google local pages actually told us not to spend much time with Yelp when we were putting legitimate comments on for our Google Local clients because even though they are legit Yelp may see them as fake and pull them off.

Interesting how that works!!! :)

Kathy

]]> By: Jef Bayless http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/03/02/fake-reviews-starting-to-get-mainstream-media-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-546187 Jef Bayless Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:59:21 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=9404#comment-546187 Anyone have any idea why I have Google Placings listings that have been PIN verified since January but still are not showing up in search even when I search business name???

]]> By: MiriamEllis http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/03/02/fake-reviews-starting-to-get-mainstream-media-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-546121 MiriamEllis Fri, 04 Mar 2011 20:34:51 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=9404#comment-546121 Thanks for find that link, Dave.

]]> By: Mark http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/03/02/fake-reviews-starting-to-get-mainstream-media-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-546103 Mark Fri, 04 Mar 2011 01:19:49 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=9404#comment-546103 Oh boy regulators coming in to fix this mess. Can’t wait to see what kind of new tax structures they can devise to fix the problem. I have posted before and I will post again if websites did not rely upon reviews for placement and rankings the problem would go away on its own.

]]> By: Jim Rudnick http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/03/02/fake-reviews-starting-to-get-mainstream-media-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-546092 Jim Rudnick Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:07:39 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=9404#comment-546092 great catch Mike….and yup, seen that only too too often in the past say 4 to 5 months up here in Canuck land too….

Yelp.ca was an easy one to game….and while I cant’ monitor it all day long (shouldn’t Yelp have someone doing that might be the question) I know that when I reported over 70+ spam phony reviews all attempting to send new customers to a local locksmith — it took Yelp almost a week to finally squash same.

But that does mean at Yelp.ca at least, they “DO” read flagged reviews and “WILL” act….

Doesn’t it?

And as @earl and @miriam commented, Kim’s cre8asiteforums.com is a great place to hang out…as the folks there KNOW SEO eh!

:-)

Jim

]]> By: earlpearl http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/03/02/fake-reviews-starting-to-get-mainstream-media-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-546091 earlpearl Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:10:14 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=9404#comment-546091 Mike:

The url for the cre8asites discussion is: http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=83467&hl=

(btw overall a very strong forum covering many many topics with comments by some very experienced and mature folks)

]]> By: Mike http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/03/02/fake-reviews-starting-to-get-mainstream-media-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-546090 Mike Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:17:11 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=9404#comment-546090 @Frank

I agree that the Communications Decency Act (section 230), while having protected ISPs and online services from unreasonable lawsuits, does provide way too much protection for both the site AND the poster. This is particularly the case when the review is proven to be untrue. In Europe, for example, if a some posted online content is proven to be untrue, the online service is required to pull the content down. Not so in the US. Even after a statement has been proven false the online services can leave the comments in place with no consequences or legal obligations… it is an act that is clearly very strongly in favor of big business.

I do believe that legislators were wide awake when it was created and given large corporate support for the bill as it stands, it is unlikely to change.

]]> By: Frank McCready http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/03/02/fake-reviews-starting-to-get-mainstream-media-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-546085 Frank McCready Thu, 03 Mar 2011 11:46:47 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=9404#comment-546085 As long as web sites are able to hide behind the grossly misnamed Common Decency Act and post unverified comment from users who have total anonymity this problem will never go away. We need legislation for the social media age. If like a journalist posters or the web sites had to make their identity available, then the victims could take appropriate legal action. That is the only method of enforcement that will work. IP adresses and alogorythms are not hte answer.
As a by product users of review web sites would actually be able to believe what they read. Everybody wins when the legislators wake up.

]]>