Yelp stops selling favored website coverage

Following claims of extortion and several lawsuits, the website Yelp announced that it will no longer delete reviews entirely from the page and does not give favorable treatment to its advertisers, according to Media Post.

Known for offering user-generated restaurant ratings, the website says that it did not extort customers but that there were misunderstandings among small business owners over any connection between the restaurant review and advertising policies.

The website says it will change its protocol regarding filtering reviews and will now provide a link to reviews that were filtered out.

Wall Street Journal reporter Geoffrey Fowler says that Yelp finds itself in a precarious situation as a website that is supported by advertisers and is fueled by user-created content.

"The disputes point up a sticky problem for many community-generated web sites: How to manage user ratings - and build an advertising-supported business - while policing such schemes from abuse," says Fowler.

In March 2010, Yelp announced that the website has grown to 10 million reviews. The announcement added that in just 3 months the website received 1 million local business reviews.