Is that an axe grinder I hear in the background? Has Yelp's sales force lied in order to close a sale? If they're like every other sales force on the planet, then they probably have. As to the other points: seems to me that if reviews were sorted chronologically, then one of the last things I'd do just before opening a new business is turf in a good half-dozen sterling reviews. You know, before those grotty little proles have a chance to whinge. And "the average user may fail to notice" a label identifying the first review as 'advertiser-promoted'? The average user fails to notice clearly-labeled Cancel, Next and Submit buttons, why should this be any different?

Honestly, I installed Yelp after a tepidly-successful weekend with their other product, iWant, and have doggedly ignored it since. I found it too cumbersome to use to just enter basic info (Yelp and iWant both pander to the "trendy" crowd, so I was hoping to enter "family restaurant"-style places). So I really can't see why anyone would get so worked up over such lameness. Or perhaps I'm simply not the kind of person the author is preaching to.