Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:10 — 7.5MB)

Facing a barrage of class action lawsuits, Yelp, the provider of user-generated local restaurant and business reviews, announced on Tuesday that it will no longer let businesses pay to push a “favorite” review to the top of the page, and will no longer edit out reviews it deemed to be fraudulent. Yelp has been hit with a number of class actions, filed on behalf of businesses that have advertised on the service and say that Yelp extorted them into paying for ads in exchange for favorable treatment. More information on Yelp here.

Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) is in talks to acquired location-sharing startup Foursquare for as much as $100 million, Business Insider reported, citing “sources close to bankers involved in Foursquare’s current fundraising efforts.” A “source close to Yahoo” confirmed that the company has held discussions with New York-based Foursquare, whose location-based mobile network was launched last year. short story here.

In case you’ve been caught up in earthquakes and baseball season openers, you may have missed the latest brilliant brain-fart to hit the Web. The company’s called Unvarnished, although the URL’s getunvarnished.com, just to confuse you. more here >>