the buzz log
Yipping About Yelp
Yelp sales pitches: Two and a half stars? According to alternative weekly East Bay Express, the social networking site which lets people post opinions on restaurants, shops, and other businesses has made a few business owners queasy with sales pitches that offer to improve the placement of positive reviews. Allegedly, those owners complained that good reviews disappeared when they declined, and negative ones moved up.
The Los Angeles Times brought up questions earlier over "hardball sales tactics" and the "secret algorithm" that mixes up the order of reviews (they're not automatically chronological). Fast Company, which recently evaluated Yelp's role in the reputation economy, mentioned hearing "similar allegations." The Express piece though tosses in another new tidbit: paid Yelpers, usually labeled as as Scouts or Ambassadors, still in existence. (Businessweek brought this up back in 2006.)
Yelp is not one to keep quiet. CEO Jeremy "Big Papa" Stoppelman responded to coverage on a lawsuit. His latest response criticized the anonymous sources.
As for Yelp itself, the love is still there, even from Fast Company, which ranked it ninth in its most innovative Web 2.0 companies: "With 4 million user-submitted reviews of everything from corner cafes to dog groomers, Yelp can make or break local businesses nationwide." Sounds like three and a half stars.
Let Us Review
The Buzz puts stock in the opinions of others, especially when it comes to gadgets. A good assessment, whether from a user or a professional, helps protect against hucksterism and hype. With the hysteria of holiday shopping behind us, look-ups on low-downs have concentrated primarily on cell phones, smart or otherwise.
However, two infomercial products have infiltrated the top 20 "review" searches: putty on steroids (No. 8) and more notably Kinoki Detox Foot Pads (No. 3), a white gauze that adheres to the soles of your feet and allegedly yanks everything from toxins to repressed playground memories from your system. Kinoki has hotfooted into the top 10,000 searches overall, its prestigious rise thanks to dubious queries such as "kinoki foot pads scam." Lucky for consumers, objects as seen on TV can be scrutinized on the Web. Then again, if it works, someone should send Amy Winehouse a bushel.
Give a once-over on what else people have been investigating in the past week:
Filed under: Electronics, Cell Phones, Gadgets, Reviews
Critical Time For Critics?
"Box office data this year suggests that filmgoers seem to be having a great time at the multiplexes. The critics, by contrast, may be shopping around for a new line of work."
—Peter Bart, "Film reviewers, moviegoers disagree," Variety, March 15, 2007
Bart's short think piece poses an interesting question. Namely, do moviegoers still care about movie reviews? Searches on "reviews" are up 26% over the last month, but that general term encompasses all sorts of different critical viewpoints.
Digging deeper, we found searches on "movie reviews" are up 18% over the last 30 days, which indicates film buffs do consider what others have to say. Whether these intrepid searchers act upon what they read is another story.
Following this line, we wondered which movies currently inspire the most "review" searches. Were the critically lambasted "Ghost Rider," "300," and "Wild Hogs" totally ignored by folks searching for movie reviews? Judging from the top 20 movie review searches, movie goers aren't listening to critical outcry...
Researching with Search
The holidays are approaching, and shopping has quickly become a contact sport. But consumers beware—not all gifts are created equal. That must be why product reviews have surged in Buzz. Nobody wants to be remembered for giving the lowest-rated digital camera in the history of photography.
In an effort to help you avoid such a fate, we've rounded up the top 20 "review" searches for high-tech gadgets and toys. (Re)search before you buy, folks—because knowledge really is power.
top movers
| Rank | Subject | 1-Day Move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karl Malden | Breakout! |
| 2 | Alexis Arguello | Breakout! |
| 3 | Danielle Deleasa | Breakout! |
| 4 | Burmese Python | Breakout! |
| 5 | Williams Sisters | Breakout! |
| 6 | Kevin Jonas | 2543% |
| 7 | Jeremy Mayfield | 2346% |
| 8 | Diana Reyes | 2229% |
| 9 | Diana Ross | 1865% |
| 10 | Diana Krall | 1622% |
top leaders
| Rank | Subject | Move | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Jackson | -101 | 924 |
| 2 | Debbie Rowe | +184 | 224 |
| 3 | -3 | 206 | |
| 4 | Kellie Pickler | +152 | 167 |
| 5 | Neverland Ranch | +75 | 163 |
| 6 | Megan Fox | -52 | 158 |
| 7 | Wimbledon | +40 | 156 |
| 8 | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | -2 | 148 |
what's the buzz?
A subject's buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Weekly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for a given week.
For more detailed information, visit our FAQ.