There's a new sheriff in town, and no it's not 'big brother', it's just the opposite. Everyday people now have the ability to propel your business into the spotlight, or drag it down by it's heels.

How have these people become so empowered?

Consumer review web sites now give them a soapbox to stand on right in the middle of the virtual village square.

One of the new players in the Web 2.0 "review this business" business is Yelp and there are others including iKarma, CitySquares, OpenList and JudysBook, just to name a few.

While some people are saying, "Power to the people!", others, including business owners are crying foul. An article in The Register, claims that Yelp not only pays reviewers -- a fact Yelp owners acknowledge, saying, [they do pay reviewers], but "Only for about two month in new areas".

Yelp, was co-founded by Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons who both formerly worked as engineers at PayPal. (I can't help saying it -- anyone who worked at PayPal knows what it's like to hear customers complain! -- but that's a topic for another review)... Yelp CEO Stoppelman denies that advertisers can pay and have bad reviews removed or pushed down to the bottom of the page where they are less obvious, (and less likely to turn up in search engine listings). Stoppelman seemed to back-track a bit and say that he couldn't argue that some "rogue salesperson" was pitching that scenrio to potential advertisers.

The problem with these review sites is [READ MORE...]