It is very interesting to watch Local Search grow and mature. Today I found a WebmasterWorld thread named Yahoo Local Integrates Editorial Reviews. That is right, instead of the normal user reviews, they have added professional editorial style reviews. One example is of Connie's Pizza in Chicago, IL, with an editorial review.
WebmasterWorld members note that the link to vote if the review is helpful or not, is missing from the editorial reviews and is only an option for the user reviews. Here is one member's concern;
I agree with you about the potential problem of Editorial reviews trumping user generated reviews. A novice user could easily interpret the logo'd Gayot review as the authoritative opinion on the business. On the other hand, when I buy a book from Amazon the first review is always the editorial review, and then I scroll down to read user reviews. I know the difference between the two, but I can't speak for novice users. This would be interesting to explore.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
