How Yelp deals with everybody getting four stars (on average)

October 12, 2009 | Kim-Mai Cutler | Comments | |

rating_dist_graph“If everybody is special, then no one is.”

Such is the problem companies face when crowdsourced criticism tends to be — er — not so critical.

Yelp, a community recommendations site, is the first that comes to mind facing this problem. The average rating for its more than 7 million reviews is 3.8 stars (out of five). Co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman says that’s a little better than other user-generated sites like YouTube, whose users say its videos are worth an average 4.3 stars.

Still, it means that any user looking for a place to have dinner inevitably comes to a list of all four-star restaurants (like the one to the left). There are so many reviews that it’s virtually impossible to have a perfect record, yet people are reluctant to hand out one- or two-star ratings. And when you’re looking for a fast solution on where to eat, a list full of four-star restaurants makes for an overwhelming “paradox of choice” situation. (Ironically, the site feels less useful to me now than it did two years ago when there were enough reviews that I could discover great finds, but not be daunted by all the four-star choices.)

So how does Yelp deal with this? The company says it’s not straying from the five-star rating system anytime soon, not even for some sort of percentile system where you can see how restaurants compare to each other. Instead, the company says its ranking system already factors in the number of reviews, whether they come from experienced Yelpers or first-time reviewers, and whether those reviews were voted helpful.

Virtually identical ratings mean people have to dive into reviews to understand what’s different, said Vince Sollitto, who heads communications for the San Francisco-based company. (Yes, it takes more time, but I bet it’s better off for Yelp’s advertisers.) The company’s also pushing more social features, nudging users to find and follow like-minded reviewers. Rather than relying on a generic one- to five-star system, Yelp says connecting people with similar tastes may be the best way of discovering the next gem.

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About the Author, Kim-Mai Cutler

Kim-Mai was born and raised a stone's throw from Apple headquarters in Cupertino by a devout Hewlett-Packard family. After attending UC Berkeley, Kim-Mai worked for Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires in New York, Los Angeles, London and Buenos Aires. Follow her on Twitter at @kimmaicutler, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • "Rather than relying on a generic one- to five-star system, Yelp says connecting people with similar tastes may be the best way of discovering the next gem."

    This seems bogus to me as aren't 90%+ of Yelp's reader's passive and unregistered? So basically, they are saying the reviews will work well for 10% of Yelp's viewers.
  • Hello
    I think this is really very interesting information.I quite like it and can't say anything.Thank you very much for sharing such information with us.
  • Haggie
    When you ask an idiot for his opinion, don't be surprised when you get an idiotic opinion...
  • Andrew
    Filtering results will narrow down that long list in an instant.

    Ex: Sushi in Los Angeles yields over 1,000 restaurants.
    Narrow by: Neighborhoods: Beverly Hills & West Hollywood yields 206
    Narrow further by: Good for Dinner yields 104
    Narrow further by: Price $$ yields 47
    Narrow further by: Category Sushi Bars yields 13.

    5 in 10 are 4-Star
    1 in 10 has a special offer
  • Is it possible that Yelpers tend to review what they like? It's one of those online communities that lean toward being nice. In contrast, some other sites tend toward the other end. For example, company review site, glassdoor.com seems to get a lot of negative postings. I don't know that this is actually the case with the site, it just ended up that way with the companies I looked up.
  • jehova
    YELP in HELL!
    We pray YELP goes bankrupt and sinks to the bottom of hell, and takes its MAFIA YELPERS with them. We pray that GOD shows no mercy for all the damage and EXTORTION they have inflicted upon small business owners and the children they support. YELP is a den of snakes and deserve to BURN for the lies and slander they spread on the web.
    PRAY PSALMS 140 FOR THEIR DESTRUCTION!
    Say five times: "Archangel Michael destroy YELP now!"
  • jerry
    Here’s why a Yelp supporter (CEO?) wrote the above “crazy biblical Jehova” comment:
    In this story: http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/0s-1s-and-s... ...Yelp apologist Paul Smalera used the same convenient “Yelp biblical” comment as evidence that Yelp critics are not to be believed and that their stories are merely the inexplicable rantings of conspiracy theorists.
    Yelp must have thought it effective, because they are trotting out their straw man conspiracy theorist again, carpet bombing negative yelp stories, with the intent of discrediting legitimate complaints about their business practices and the untrustworthiness of their reviews.

    They are probably also freaking out that the Federal government is taking action against online reviewers receiving bribes (can’t see how this won’t end up applying to Yelp, possibly wiping out their content) with a new law: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10367464-93.ht...