To answer the OP's question, yes and no.
The internet, and the advent of widespread consumer reviews has been both a good thing and a bad thing. On the one hand, I can find many different opinions and endless feedback about a certain establishment/restaurant/tobacco/etc., and I can use that information to make an informed decision, but on the other hand, there is very little, or no extra weight placed on a review by someone who actually has a level of expertise on the subject. Basically, on the internet, everyone is an expert (or NOT!) and it's up to us to suss out the details.
I see this most frequently with restaurants. It used to be that newspapers sent out food critics to review establishments, and after visiting a number of times they would write an article detailing these reviews. In many situations such critics were experts, or at least well trained in writing an objective review using clearly defined criteria and formulae, and one could generally trust their opinions on such matters. Now, with yelp, everyone is an expert and you must do a considerable amount of research to sort out the biases of the reviewer before determining if their opinions are in any way helpful for you. A good example can be seen in the town in between Tucson and Phoenix, Casa Grande. There is very little fine dining in Casa Grande, and if you go to yelp, even the most lowly fast food establishments are rated very highly, regardless of quality.
