MetroSEEQ

Review sites like Citysearch and Yelp have been getting into some legal trouble these days.  In the first story, TechCrunch talks about Citysearch’s rampant click fraud that motivated a class action law suit. Also in the comment section, there’s a very interesting comment posted by “MAD” detailing how Citysearch operates - I can hardly believe why people still advertise with shady companies like that.

The truth is, it is very hard to prevent click fraud.  WebGuild.org estimates click fraud claims 28% of Searcch ads.  When you mesh this number with a company that is purely driven by money (ahem, like MySpace has become) and a proprietary ranking system.  You’re gonna get the perfect storm of fradulent activities and exploitation.

Yelp’s traffic/activity has exceeded Citysearch recently but they have problems of their own.  One example commented by Jane from the same techcrunch article said that Yelp would contact businesses asking for $250 to move the reviews they like to the top.  If you turn down the offer, the bad reviews straight to the top.  Very surprising… let me know your thoughts here.

Moral of this story is- Advertising without efficient tracking/metrics is throwing your money away.