Culture
How Yelp Is Giving You Bad Advice
The science of why crowdsourced reviews can be so misleading.
Where can you devour an elk burger smothered in melted cheese and onion rings? Which diner has the greasiest loaded potato skins?
It’s no secret that many of us turn to crowdsourced sites to gather information and weigh options. Quantcast estimates that Yelp’s traffic—combining desktop and mobile visitors—is in the realm of 5,270,925 unique monthly users. We’re trying to find the experience that gels with our specific cravings, however niche. But are we actually learning anything from this “collective intelligence?”