Category Archives: Online Reviews

Google HotPot Was Always Sort of a Crock

Lior Ron announced today that Google is dumping the HotPot brand for its local reviews system and rolling it into Google Places. It’s a good move and I am guessing an indicator of more product coherence from GOOG as a result of Larry Page becoming CEO. I was always confused by the HotPot brand. Most, [...] Continue reading

Posted in Google Place Pages, Google Place Search, Google Social Search, Online Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

The Butchers on Yonge Street: Group-Buying Blowback

During Yipit’s presentation on Group Buying Data at ILMEast this morning James Moran mentioned that a deal from DealFind for The Butchers on Yonge Street in Toronto could have been one of the most successful daily deal offers yet.  The Canadian company offered 69% off meat orders and sold over 11,000 orders which generated over [...] Continue reading

Posted in Daily Deals, Online Reviews, Reputation Management | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Groupon Reviews As Google Places Citations = More IYP SEO Woe

Reviews of businesses on Groupon have been spotted on Google Place Pages since January: Last year I speculated that social local applications like Twitter & Foursquare could start to cause a lot of SEO problems for IYPs because they could easily replicate the IYP structure while providing a lot more unique content. Groupon reviews are [...] Continue reading

Posted in Daily Deals, Google Place Pages, Google Place Search, Groupon, Online Coupons, Online Reviews, Yellow Pages | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Fake Reviews Cost Real $: Legacy Learning Systems

Another company gets busted by the feds to the tune of $250,000 for using fake reviews to generate business: The Learn and Master Guitar program promoted by Legacy Learning and Smith is sold as a way to learn the guitar at home using DVDs and written materials. According to the FTC’s complaint, Legacy Learning advertised [...] Continue reading

Posted in Online Reviews, Reputation Management | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off