It’s the moment all SNL fans have been waiting for, but unfortunately the population of downtown New York City does not get the joke. Epic lines ensue.

Stefon Joins Yelp is a post from: The Inquisitr

Robert Lee had a sore tooth in 2010 so he went to Dr. Stacy Makhnevich in New York.

ABC News reports that prior to treatment Lee was asked to sign several papers, inlucding one on Mutual Agreement to Maintain Privacy. The agreement required him not to publish any commentary or write something that would discredit the dentist.

After the treatment, Lee received a bill amounting to $4,766. He requested the dentist’s office to forward the paperwork to his insurance company. The office, however, sent it to the wrong company. As a result, Lee asked for the forms himself so that he can submit it to the right company. The dentist refused to hand over the papers and referred him to a third party that required five percent of the total bill for its services.

Annoyed with his experience, Lee headed to Yelp and DoctorBase and wrote negative comments.

Dr. Stacy Makhnevich did not take the negative comments lightly. The dentist sent Lee a letter demanding that he delete the post and reminding him of the agreement that he signed early on or face breach of contract. The dentist also asked Yelp and DoctorBase to take down the comments. Both sites refused to comply to the doctor’s demand.

Now the doctor is saying that she owns the “harsh words” that Lee wrote. She went on to send Lee an invoice for $100 for each day the comments remain online.

Paul Levy, Lee’s lawyer, commented:

“We are now seeking a declaratory judgment from the judge to show that my client was not doing anything wrong. Doctors and dentists are expected to behave in an ethical manner, and to impose this sort of requirement on people who are having emergencies is unethical.”

Arthur Caplan, chairman of the department of medical ethics at University of Pennsylvania Medical Center said:

“This is a form of bullying, and it’s absurd that this could possibly be an enforceable contract. It infringes upon free speech and you can’t just have that waived away on a silence contract. This doctor is overreacting and attempting to muzzle patients.”

If you’re Robert lee, would you take down the negative comments that you wrote? Would you sign such kind of agreement prior to getting treatment?

Dentist asks Yelp to take down negative comments; Threatens to sue patient is a post from: The Inquisitr

Unlike most Yelp reviews, this one is based in irrefutable fact without excessive opinion.

[reddit]

If Yelp Existed in the 1800′s is a post from: The Inquisitr

One of the more frightening aspects of the ever more free exchange of information on the internet is the apparent impulse in many to stifle this open dialogue, particularly many who have a great deal of power, money or influence.

Censorship, of course, far predates the internet. But it seems every day there is a new venue where someone is trying to get someone to STFU. And while the internet is certainly used for spreading misinformation, accidentally or deliberately, should people be allowed to tell a story that is true and correct to their knowledge if the spread of that information stands to harm another individual?

The answer, of course, is yes. But Ars Technica writer Timothy Lee brings the issue of online reviews and medical reviews to the forefront again with his tale of an inadvertent almost-gagging when seeking a new dentist. Lee hadn’t planned on reviewing the dentist necessarily, but while filling out the stock-standard medical forms in the new patient intake, Lee noticed something out of sorts and investigated. What he found is a little disturbing and creates a few questions as far as the rights of private citizens to- well, speak. Lee explains:

Yelp says Dr. Cirka is one of the best in the Philadelphia area. The receptionist handed me a clipboard with forms to fill out. After the usual patient information form, there was a “mutual privacy agreement” that asked me to transfer ownership of any public commentary I might write in the future to Dr. Cirka. Surprised and a little outraged by this, I got into a lengthy discussion with Dr. Cirka’s office manager that ended in me refusing to sign and her showing me the door.

Lee explains that the agreement was supplied by a group called “Medical Justice,” purporting to aggressively defend doctors against frivolous malpractice claims. But on their site, buried in marketing-speak that can almost make you sympathetic to their free-speech objections, is a stance on net reviews that is chilling.

The practice also seems to rely heavily on both patients’ and doctors’ lack of understanding of laws surrounding these issues. Lee describes how the office was unable to explain some very simple implications of the agreement it enters into with patients on a daily basis:

I had a long conversation with Dr. Cirka’s office manager, who insisted that the agreement was not intended to censor the truthful reviews of Dr. Cirka’s patients. Rather, she said, it gave Dr. Cirka a tool to remove fraudulent reviews. She said they were especially concerned about non-patients (such as competitors, ex-spouses, or former employees) writing fake reviews to damage Dr. Cirka’s business.

She didn’t have a good answer when I pointed out that the agreement’s text didn’t say anything about fraudulent reviews. She also couldn’t explain how the agreement could bind non-patients, who by definition will not have signed it.

The conversation Lee recounts is really the crux of the issue here- it’s almost impossible to root out unethical negative complaints without stifling the many others who may have legitimate reason to post an unfavorable review. Recently, a doctor in Wisconsin brought a defamation suit against a patient’s son after the man posted a negative review online. The case was thrown out.

Do you find this practice unsettling? Should doctors be able to interfere with information you share outside their offices? Are the limits of HIPAA laws alone enough to place doctors into a protected class immune from online opinion that doesn’t apply to restaurants, nail salons, bars and other businesses?

Should doctors be able to gag patients online? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Facebook’s mobile app, like Foursquare before it, is set to add local deals to its mobile app.

A rep for Facebook points out that the functionality can serve to connect local retailers and restaurants to mobile web users in a way the internet alone has not yet managed. And while Foursquare isn’t the only location aware app to offer the service (Loopt and Yelp also provide coupons), Facebook’s sheer monstrous size means it could become the front runner in the local deals genre:

“It starts to solve an age-old problem that local businesses have always had,” said Emily White, director of local at Facebook. “They’ve been told they need to be online. But it hasn’t always been clear what the benefit is. That’s what this deals platform allows. It’s turning those fans, those visitors, those eyeballs into real dollars, real people and real business.”

Not content to have a raging head start, Facebook plans to launch the service in a massive way, too. Pairing up with the Gap, Facebook says that the first 10,000 people to check in to Facebook at the Gap will receive a free pair of jeans. Also on the docket are offers where you can tag your friends to get deals. According to the New York Times, Mark Zuckerberg says that usage of Facebook mobile has increased threefold in the past year:

“Think about Android and iPhone,” he said. “This is a much bigger footprint than that. The only bigger platform is the mobile Web itself.”

“Our goal is to make everything social, no matter what platform you’re building for,” Mr. Zuckerberg said.

Have you been using Facebook to check in to local spots? Are you interested to see what kind of deals will be available on the service?

Facebook mobile to add local deals, give away free Gap jeans is a post from: The Inquisitr

This is what Yelp is for is a post from: The Inquisitr

Google is reported to be close to acquiring market leading business review site Yelp for around $500 million, a move that will kill another pile of similar/ smaller startups.

A Washington Post report claims that the deal is 80% likely and is past the term sheet stage. Yelp has raised approx $31 million to date.

Founded in 2004, Yelp has become the North American leader in business reviews, covering a wide range of businesses including restaurants (which it’s best known for), stores, beauty outlets, and even night clubs.

The move, which would see Yelp merged into Google’s moderately successful (and similar) review service, would create a giant in the review business that can only result in one thing: many smaller startups failing. After all, how could you compete with a combined Yelp/ Google service that embeds reviews in every Google Maps search, or offers those results up top (or near to it) in a general Google search. It’s in the to be expected column to some degree, but sadly in this case innovation may be the loser.

According to Alexa, Yelp is the 345th most popular site on the Internet, and the 75th most popular site in the United States.

Google Close To Buying Yelp For $500 Million, Killing Another Pile Of Startups is a post from: The Inquisitr

A man who posted a two-star review of a local independent bookstore on Yelp seems to have inadvertently torn open a whole big box of crazy.

The man, known on Yelp as Sean C. in San Francisco, posted the following review of Ocean Avenue Books, dated 10/29/09:

This place is a TOTAL MESS with minimal organization of titles or subjects. There are books stacked everywhere – blocking the shelves. Why would someone want a travel guide from 1982?? I think this place needs to close down for a few days and do a thorough cleaning and organization and get rid of all the crap!

Hardly that scathing compared to some of the reviews available on any number of review sites. But the owner did not find the review Useful (53), Funny (43), or Cool (38); instead, she sent a series of angry, incoherent messages resulting in confronting the man at his door, trying to force her way into his home and ultimately ending in an alleged wrestling match on the man’s front steps. Interestingly, Sean C.’s account of the kerfuffle comes from another review of an organization that assisted him in filing a restraining order. Full circle FTW!

Last Friday I posted a two star review on a business located near my home – the owner started sending me crazy harassing and threatening messages through Yelp. On Sunday night I get a knock at my door – I answer it and it’s the business owner who tried to physically force her way into my home (I still don’t know how she found out where I live)! After wrestling wither her for a few moments (I do have a gun in the house and she is lucky she didn’t get shot or worse) I was able to get my door shut and locked and called 911. The police quickly arrived and took her away and advised me to get a restraining order. The next morning I went to the ACCES center and they couldn’t have been more helpful! They helped me fill out the proper forms, made copies, and told me exactly all the steps that were needed to take to get the restraining order in effect.

While Yelp pulled the original comment from the owner on Sean C.’s review, he took screenshots of the series of angry private messages sent by the owner and helpfully transcribed them in a long thread about the incident:

“hey — I just read it. Why don’t you come in here and say it to my face? Are you too much of a coward?”

“What’s the problem, why are you writing so many mean things? Do you not have a girlfriend? are you divorced? I can see why….”

“world of pain. well you sure spread pain to others.

You are too much of a pussy to come in here and speak to me directly. Goodbye pussy boy and I will be contacting your employers.”

“I’ve been thinking about it. The problem is — You’re not very bright. You are a stupid person, and that’s wjhy you do so many stupid things. You have a stupid looking face,. too. You look like an idiot.”

“I don’t want to be on yelp. I’ve asked them to take me off of it but they laughed at me and made fun of me while tears poured down my cheeks.  You are an idiot who doesn’t know anything about life and bI can tell by the way you write that you grew up in a bad family. Your mom was a bitch and she didn’t teach you how to behave, that’s why your life is such a mess right now. You are low class – you look it. You look like trash.”

Yelp claims to be helping the beleaguered reviewer in any way they can, but are unable to shed light on how the woman obtained Sean C.’s home address:

This sounds like a bad episode of Renegade circa 1992 on UPN or something.

Obviously, there’s still a lot to discover about all this, but we’re here to help Sean out in any way we can as it plays itself out. To answer a few questions I’ve received via Private Messages and email regarding this issue, I wanted to reiterate the following:

We take our privacy standards very seriously. In this particular incident, we certainly didn’t provide any personal information about Sean (telephone numbers, home address, et al.), as none of those pieces of information are even available to us. There’s no telling how this person may have unearthed Sean’s place of residence, but rest assured, that information was in no way, shape or form, provided by Yelp.

We’re all about creating a fun opportunity for the community to share local knowledge and help each other find cool local spots around the city. User reviews are clearly an important tool to make that happen, so if anyone has questions or concerns, please feel free to hit me up.

While it’s definitely an interesting turn of events, it almost seems strange that this hasn’t happened already. How many times have you dealt with business owners who have a tremendous inability to be accommodating and deal with customers effectively and a crazy, public temper? Given the content of some reviews on sites like Yelp, I would be shocked if this hasn’t happened at least once before. And as Yelp didn’t disclose the man’s address, Sean C. wasn’t listed in directories, and he didn’t use a credit or debit card in the store, how did this woman manage to track him down in two days?

[Via Gawker]

Man who posted 2-star Yelp review finds enraged business owner on doorstep is a post from: The Inquisitr

Yelp, which bills itself as a Web 2.0 review site powered by real people giving real reviews, recently faced charges by San Francisco businesses that Yelp employees were strong arming them for better review placement in exchanges for goods and sponsorship deals. It would seem according to a story today at the Chicago Tribune that the practice isn’t just restricted to San Francisco. Apparently some Chicago businesses are accusing Yelp representatives of approaching them to re-arrange the company’s positive and negative reviews in exchange for those same type of advertising and sponsorship deals.

Ina Pinkney of Ina’s restaurant in the West Loop said that last summer a Yelp salesperson offered to "move up my good reviews if I sponsored one of their events. They called it rearranging my reviews."

The owner of More Cupcakes, Patty Rothman, said that last fall a Yelp Chicago staffer walked into her Gold Coast shop and "guaranteed us good reviews on the site if we catered one of their parties for free." Offended but resigned, Rothman complied. And just as promised, positive reviews bloomed for the business right after the party, Rothman said.

Source: Chicago Tribune

Gee…. I wonder what happened to the whole Web 2.0 and social media ethos of warm and fuzzy we’re in this altogether for the consumer ideology. As usual money trumps ethos I guess.

Yelp faces additional allegations is a post from: The Inquisitr

Through a partnership with Yelp, a four-year-old startup in Silicon Valley, the company will start putting local business reviews within its mapping results today, as CNET points out. MapQuest will also begin offering sports information via parent company AOL’s sports service and is additionally beginning to focus more on mobile apps. So far, a BlackBerry app is on the market, and an iPhone-friendly mapping feature is expected to go live any day. The updated MapQuest site also switches to a new, less banner-centric ad format, CNET says.

The changes come amidst recent reports of the service “stagnating” compared to Google’s Google Maps offering. Cowen and Co. analysts said both MapQuest and Yahoo Maps “do not have the resources to keep pace and are forced to aggressively monetize a declining franchise in the maps segment,” particularly in the growing realm of mobile map usage.

Agree? Click on your mapping service of choice below and let’s see how Inquisitr readers compare with the analysts’ opinions.

MapQuest Fights Back with Local Features is a post from: The Inquisitr