Yelp announces changes — will they satisfy class-action plaintiffs?

Are lawyers in the class-action suit against Yelp smelling victory?

On Monday, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman announced the user review giant would drop its

“Favorite Review” feature and let readers see the reviews that would

otherwise have been filtered out by its automated review filter. “Now

you can take a look at any business listing on Yelp and see for yourself

the work the review filter has done behind the scenes,” Stoppelman

wrote on the Yelp blog. “Perhaps helping to protect one business from

malicious reviews that might stem from a competitor.”

On Tuesday, TechCrunch noted that, in a press release, the Miami

and San Diego law firms who filed the class-action suit against

S.F.-based Yelp called Stoppelman’s announcement a “first step in the

right direction.” So Yelp’s legal worries might soon be over, right? Not

so fast, warned TechCrunch.

The “Favorite Review” allowed businesses

that were Yelp advertisers to list their best review first. And while

letting readers see what yelp filters identify as suspect reviews does

little to address the meat of the plaintiffs’ case. Namely, that Yelp

put the squeeze on businesses to compel them to become advertisers, and

when they didn’t, gave negative reviews greater prominence on their

pages.

“It’s still unclear how Yelp decides

what order to display a business’ reviews,” pointed out Kathleen Wentz of the East Bay Express, “and it’s possible that

manipulation is still occurring.”

This week’s news looks like round one of what promises to be a long fight.