Serious Eats
Yelp Extorting Businesses
When Mary Seaton received negative reviews on user-generated review site Yelp for her business, The Sofa Outlet, Yelp offered to help her out. But only if she paid $350 a month for a business account in which Yelp downplays negative reviews by moving some of them to bottom. However, while positive reviews may be scrutinized and removed, negative reviews are never taken off a business's page. Yelp's practice of extorting businesses that have been negatively reviewed on its website actually isn't a new practice at all. [via Eater]