Yelp Says Search Results Favor Google+ Local Listings

People searching for "gary danko yelp" got the first result focused on Gary Danko, and the following results were Yelp pages. There was no link to Google+, there are Google+ reviews that are listed under the official linked website as meta-information. How the results looked:

http://vni.s3.amazonaws.com/140710080638104.jpg

Garydanko.com with their terrible flash site should be glad they even outrank the Yelp pages.

Just because Yelp is known to filter results (pay them for positive reviews on top, do not pay them for negative reviews on top), does not mean that Google is. Maybe Google should respond like they responded to that class-action lawsuit by Belgian newspapers: Do not want to be in our news index? Do not be in our entire index and suffer the consequences. The presentation linked in the article talks about a "barnacle" not a SERP position.

Google appears to be intentionally serving up search results that contradict the users

Barnacles are NOT search results. The search result that outranked Yelp was the official site! Yelp of course wants to outrank official sites if you mention "yelp" anywhere in your search term.

"yelp" is even mentioned ON the official site (or heavily linked to these pages with the 'yelp' keyword), so it was not like Google was ignoring it. (they then strike-through the term that was not found and report it 'missing') https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Agarydanko.com+yelp&pw...

Also the order of your search results obviously starts to matter then. A search for "yelp gary danko" may favor yelp sites more.

calbear81• 12 years ago

Barnacles are NOT search results.

The average user wouldn't make this distinction. They ran a search, the results are everything presented to them.

On mobile, it's much more so a result because the right side card on desktop becomes the top card and 1st results on mobile.

walshemj• 12 years ago

So these "yelp" keywords who decided they where your key words :-)

Its a bit like me complaining about the dead author and buddhist scholar who I share my name with

jamesbritt• 12 years ago

It strikes me as very plausible that anyone searching with the string "yelp" is looking for reviews and not necessarily Yelp reviews.

I'm generally not a fan of systems that prefer to do what it divines I intended rather than do what I actually asked, but there have been many cases where that ended up as a the better result (misspelling, for example.)

Just as the term "google" for many is a generic term for "search", "yelp" may be a colloquialism for "reviews."

Perhaps users are better served by getting something other than Yelp for reviews.

smoyer• 12 years ago

Did anyone else laugh at "Google competitor Yelp ..."?

Google may appear to be a monopoly, but there are plenty of people using Bing and Yahoo (Bing underneath). While I think it's foolish for Google to manipulate results in the long run, they certainly write the algorithms that determine search relevance for their own system.

Does Google include special rules to outrank Yelp? Maybe, but I can't bring myself to feel any sympathy for a company (Yelp) that gets so much bad press for extortion. Maybe users find the much sparser reviews on G+ more accurate because they're not manipulated based on whether the business pays Yelp?

seven40• 12 years ago

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-allegedly-manipualtes-...

Looks like it's happening for TripAdvisor searches, too.

mattmcknight• 12 years ago

I am more annoyed that I often get a higher search result for a dead code.google.com repo than the active one on github.com

bitonomics2• 12 years ago

It does seem funny that Yelp would complain about the premium organic listings.

But with Google owning Zagat it makes sense that Yelp wouldn't be the first result. I feel we often mistake Google for a search only company even though they are increasingly becoming the GE of tech and have every right to start giving their subsidiaries the premium "organic" results.

The big thing I think this does is open them up to competition in the long run. It would have to be anything special, maybe a s simple as the Google from 5 years ago (before they bought another company in seemingly every sector)

And from the looks of the design it seems like Bing is starting to look a lot like the Google of old.

timothya• 12 years ago

This seems pretty silly.

If you look at the screenshot from the click study they did in the presentation [0], for the search "gary danko yelp", Google is (or was) serving up the Gary Danko website itself first, instead of the Yelp page. Honestly, I think the website of the business itself is an appropriate first search result, even if the query included the word "Yelp". To the bottom of this result, Google has attached links to see the Google Local Reviews and shows the rating, which is either done automatically by Google (though I'm not sure if they add it automatically) or through the Google Business Tools [1] at the request of Gary Danko themselves. According to their click study though, barely anyone is clicking those additional links.

[0]: Page 12 of http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/yelp.pdf

[1] https://www.google.com/business/

bkmartin2• 12 years ago

So how exactly is this illegal? It's Google's search, they can put up any results they want. If people aren't getting the results they want then they can use Bing or Yahoo and get what they want. Since when is promoting yourself within your own product against he law? Makes Yelp sound like a bunch of spoiled whiny brats.

Sally: "Jimmy, what does Billy think about Restaurant x?".

Jimmy: "I think that Restaurant x is amazing... Here, I'll write down what Billy thinks and put it in this envelope that you can open and read if you want another opinion."

Sally: "Thanks, sounds good, I think I'll try it. You're so helpful Jimmy." *leaves note unopened

Billy: "Mom! Jimmy told Sally what he thinks of Restaurant x and didn't say what I thought. Punish him, he's not playing fair!".

-Names have been changed to protect the idiotic.

legohead• 12 years ago

remember when Microsoft built IE into the OS as an attempt to force everyone to use IE? but it's their operating system!

look up antitrust

bkmartin2• 12 years ago

They didn't keep you from installing another browser. An ultimately the only thing that came of that was that they had to let you uninstall the browser. It still comes on all new PCs in the US.

fortuitous• 12 years ago

And if you think bing's search marketshare is not due to Microsoft OS dominance then I have a bridge to sell to you.

Yelp Says Search Results Favor Google+ Local Listings

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