If you've ever tried to find a review of somewhere in the US you'll probably have used Yelp.

The concept is simple, people review the restaurants, bars and businesses so that you can make a judgment based on people's actual experiences. While this approach does have its drawbacksY crowdsourced reviews are generally a good way to find out the skinny on a new place.

Almost since its inception, however, Yelp has been controversial. Business owners have threatened to sue over bad reviews and there have been persistent allegations that companies have been offered the chance to remove bad reviews if they buy an advertising package, allegations the site's management vehemently denies.

"Only a member of the user support team can remove a review and this team is not part of the sales organization. Please note that members of our user support team do not receive compensation tied to sales performance. It's our version of checks and balance," the company says in its FAQ.

Now things have come to a head, with a class action extortion complaint filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, on behalf of Gregory Perrault, a veterinarian who owns and operates Cats & Dogs Animal Hospital in Long Beach.

Perrault claims that a sales executive from Yelp promised him that he could have much more control over the site if he bought a $300 per month advertising package.

"I don't have a problem with negative reviews. Like probably most business people, you use negative reviews to your advantage, as long as they're not emotional or making fun of [people]," Perrault told ABCNews.com.

"It's just that I tried following their rules about the reviews and I've been [faced with] this extortion ever since."

Yelp says that the claims are demonstrably untrue and it will fight the action. Several other businesses have also indicated that they want to get involved, according to Perrault's legal team.

"We've been directly contacted by dozens of people. And in every location you can think of. Literally across the country," said Beck, an attorney with Beck & Lee Business Trial Lawyers in Miami.

"What we learned is that this isn't an isolated practice or a single event or a single sales representative run amok. This seems to be a regular business practice."

Posted by Iain Thomson on February 27, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bloom  Energy's event today was all well and good, but Sleuth reserves judgment on its effectiveness.

On the one hand this is a perfect story. Nasa scientist develops hardware to convert Mars power into oxygen, project gets canceled and the invention gets turned around to benefit life on earth. It's not a new story - Bruce Stirling came up with something similar in Distraction.

As ever, the devil is in the details. Bloom claims to have invented an improvement on existing fuel cell technology that uses cheaper components than prior systems. If correct, this could be very good news.

One of the biggest problems with power generation is transmission. Superconductors, materials that can transmit power with no loss via resistance, aren't practical at normal temperatures and so we lose a lot of the electricity we generate just sending it to where it's needed.

Bloom offers to sort all that out by putting the power generation plant next to the consumer. It's a smart idea, something Thomas Edison first envisioned for power stations.

Details on the system are sketchy, we've asked for customer references and details of the system but had no reply. However, one serious problem springs to  mind.

The fuel cell relies on either a hydrocarbon source, or renewable energy. Quite how the differential between these two power sources comes about hasn't been explained and therein lies the rub.

Posted by Iain Thomson on February 25, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to reports, Intel is planning to invest up to $3bn dollars in a US venture-capital fund that will assist technology start-ups.

Apparently Intel is discussing its investment plans with venture firms. The reports said that Intel chief executive Paul Otellini will make the announcement later today.

Otellini is speaking at the Brookings Institution at 10am in Washinton DC on how future economic growth can be established with a long-term strategic approach.

He will speak on rebuilding the foundations of America's growth based on investment in innovation, and through developing and engaging new talent, according to the Brookings Institution events agenda.

"In his remarks, Otellini will describe the need to create a culture of investment in the United States, including the role for American businesses to partner with the government in promoting education, innovation and the creation of new business opportunities in order to maintain a globally competitive economy," it said.

Posted by Rosalie Marshall on February 23, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

In an astonishing case a US school is being sued for spying on students in their own homes.

Papers released in the case of Robbins v Lower Merion School District show that Harriton High School issued laptops with webcams to all students so that they could work from home. However, the laptops also contained spying software, something the school neglected to mention in their information for students.

The policy only came to light in November last year after one student, Blake Robbins, was called into school and disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and as evidence the school presented a photograph taken by the webcam.

When his outraged parents called in to confirm this the school said that it routinely monitored students webcams for inappropriate behaviour, according to the court documents.

The parents then filed a class-action lawsuit against the district, charging it with interception of electronic communications under the Electronic Communication Privacy Act, theft of intellectual property under the Computer Fraud Abuse Act, violations of the Stored Communications Act, violations of the Civil Rights Act, invasions of privacy, and violations of the Pennsylvania wiretapping and electronic surveillance act.

"Many of the images captured and intercepted may consist of images of minors and their parents or friends in compromising or embarrassing positions, including, but not limited to, in various stages of dress or undress," the lawsuit charges.

If the details of the case are accurate the case could prove very costly indeed for the school district, which has yet to offer an explanation.

Posted by Iain Thomson on February 18, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Tragedy struck electric car company Tesla today when three of its employees died in a plane crash.

The three took off in a Cessna 310 from Palo Alto Airport at 7:55am in thick fog and within minutes hit power lines over a residential neighborhood. All were killed but there were no other injuries, something the Menlo Park Fire Protection Chief  called "miraculous."

"We are withholding their identities as we work with the relevant authorities to notify the families," Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive said in a statement.

The crash started house fires and knocked out a large chunk of the power network in Menlo Park and Mountain View, leaving many companies, including Facebook, powerless. At time of posting power is still out as engineers try to repair the damage.

The plane was registered to Doug Bourn, 57, a senior electrical engineer at Tesla, although it's not known if he was on board.

In a statement the city authorities said the Emergency Operations Center has been activated and the power should be back up by about 5.30pm, but no promises.

Posted by Iain Thomson on February 17, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

While the sporting world may be watching the Winter Olympics in Canada the eyes of Oracle were across the Atlantic in Spain, where Larry Ellison piloted his high-tech trimaran to victory in the America's Cup.

Larry's been after the America's Cup for nearly a decade and, as we say in the tech industry, what Larry wants Larry gets. He's poured millions into the attempt, and has fought tooth and nail through the courts for the right to challenge, after the opposition tried to use legal means to bump him from racing.

But it's not just money that Oracle has been using, but compute time too. The team's winning boat uses an innovative fixed wing sale designed by CAD/CAM that has proved to be an absolute marvel. The BMW Oracle racing team romped off during the racing and Larry was at the helm to pilot his baby across the victory line.

Other tech companies were also involved, and are letting the world know. NetSuite's cloud applications were used by the team to handle finances around the world for example.

The news is also great for Silicon Valley because it looks likely that the next race will be held in San Francisco. Ellison was representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club and it is here that the trophy will be stored until the next challenge in 2014.

Posted by Iain Thomson on February 16, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today's press conference was notable not just for what Google said, but for what it didn't say.

In the hour-long presentation Facebook wasn't mentioned once, pretty impressive considering it's the market-leading social network. It was only at the Q&A session at the end that anyone could mention the elephant in the living room.

When the question was asked Brin ducked it, but his answer did reveal something of his intentions.

It seems clear that Google will be attacking Facebook on two fronts. Firstly, the basic Buzz will compete for user's time directly. One of the speakers admitted to using Facebook himself and I'm willing to bet a fair proportion of Google's 20,000+ employees aren't going to be trashing their accounts any time soon.

Secondly however, and this is something Brin pushed hard, is going to be a focus on Buzz as a business tool. He dismissed Facebook (without mentioning it by name) as focussing on friends and fun, while extolling the virtues of Buzz as a productivity enhancer in the office.

He gave the example of his writing an analysis article and mailing it around colleagues for advice. It's perfectly possible to do this now of course but Buzz will make that kind of collaborative working a lot easier.

That said, I can see considerable resistance to this in some areas from employees, particularly on the geotagging side of things. Google made a big point about privacy settings and how you can tailor your output to suit the audience but I can see companies insisting on staff leaving this on.

So you can kiss goodbye to calling in sick and sneaking off to the park on a sunny day, not that the Sleuth would ever condone such a practice. Salesmen on the road will be constantly available to be checked up on and employers will also no doubt be looking at any interviewee's Google profile when hiring.

But Facebook isn't the only company that should be worried about Buzz. Online reviews site Yelp, which last year Google reportedly tried to buy for $500m, could also be in trouble.

Google demoed using Buzz on a mobile phone to check out nearby restaurant reviews in an interface that Yelp users would recognise instantly. It looks like Yelp's owners could be facing the kind of regrets Jerry Yang knows only too well.

Posted by Iain Thomson on February 10, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

The latest US budget has been announced by President Obama and the news has been shocking for Nasa.

The new budget abandons plans for a manned moon landing, cancels the Areas One rocket program but crucially commits Nasa to buying in its orbital flights from commercial companies.

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have been leading the way in orbital technology and so the announcement was good news here in California.

For example, the Blue Origin rocket programme started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is to get $3.7m in the budget, despite it being aimed at sub-orbital flights only.

The SpaceX programme is also getting money, despite some fairly high profile failures. If the latest rocket works with the additional funding then the company could be poised to reap billions in government revenues.

By moving away from manned exploration to computer controlled investigations the budget will also be a boost to electronics companies in the Bay Area. We're already hearing about a host of new ideas, including remote greenhouses in space, new satellite drives and remote control exploration.

At a discussion of technologists last week it was noted that the only significant benefit from the Apollo launch was much better computing power and design. Maybe this budget will do the same for other areas. Silicon Valley is certainly hoping so.

Posted by Iain Thomson on February 2, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)