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White House downplays talk of executive order targeting internet bias
Is President Trump looking at an executive order that would investigate internet companies over his accusations of political bias? Not officially... although the government isn't strictly denying the claims, either. After Bloomberg reported the existence of a draft order, deputy White House press secretary Lindsey Walters issued a statement that the document was "not the result of an official policymaking process." It's not saying the story is wrong, as such -- it is, however, downplaying the prospect of such an order becoming a reality.
Yelp's hygiene score cards for restaurants go nationwide
Back in 2013, Yelp introduced an attribute that someone who values hygiene above all else would love: restaurants' health inspection scores. The website has only been displaying ratings on select restaurants' pages in New York and San Francisco, though, since the feature is part of the company's Local Inspector Value-entry Specification (LIVES) program developed with those megacities' local health departments. Now, the crowdsourced reviews portal is expanding its availability nationwide, giving you easy access to establishments' hygiene score cards across the US. You don't have to painstakingly dig for them in government websites anymore.
California court says Yelp can’t be forced to remove negative reviews
Yelp has been fighting a court order that said it had to take down two reviews from its site, an order that it claimed violated its right to due process and ignored Communications Decency Act protections that say companies with an online presence aren't liable for what their users say on their platforms. The California Supreme Court has now issued a decision on the case and it agrees that in this situation, Yelp shouldn't be forced to remove the reviews in question. The case has been followed closely by tech companies and digital rights groups that were concerned the initial ruling was in opposition to the Communications Decency Act.
Yelp wants the EU to launch new antitrust charges against Google
Google still gives its own products an unlawful advantage in search results -- that's what Yelp co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman said on CBS' 60 Minutes. That's also the crowdsourced reviews website's reason for filing another another complaint with the European Union's antitrust authorities, asking them to launch new charges against the tech giant. According to the documents The Financial Times saw, Yelp argued that Google tends to put Local Search links at the top of the results page while placing Yelp's, TripAdvisor's and similar services' links much further down.
Google wants Maps to be the only thing you need to plan a night
If you're looking to go somewhere, you probably start your search with Google Maps, before heading over to Yelp and Trip Advisor. Google's not happy with that state of affairs, and is determined to make sure that its mapping platform is where you start, and end, your plans for Friday night. The company has announced a whole slew of new features that'll gradually turn Maps into the only tool you'll need to plan a night out.
GrubHub and Yelp now offer delivery from over 80,000 restaurants
To combat rival services DoorDash and UberEats, Grubhub is expanding its partnership with Yelp to deliver meals from over 80,000 US restaurants on the food listing company's site and app. This finalizes GrubHub's $288 million acquisition of Yelp's Eat24 directory that it began last fall. In exchange, Yelp will get an undisclosed cut of every GrubHub order made through its service.
AI writes Yelp reviews that pass for the real thing
On any given day, hordes of people consult online reviews to help them pick out where to eat, what to watch, and products to buy. We trust that these reviews are reliable because they come from everyday folk just like us. But, what if the feedback blurbs on sites ranging from Amazon to iTunes could be faked -- not just by nefarious humans, but by AI? That's what researchers from University of Chicago tried to do, with surprising results. Not only did the Yelp restaurant reviews written by their neural network manage to pass for the real thing, but people even found the posts to be useful.
Lawsuit claims Disney illegally collected data in kids apps
The Walt Disney Company is being sued because a number of its apps geared towards children have allegedly been collecting personal information that the company has been sharing with advertisers. The class action suit, brought forth by a California woman, claims that Disney and three software companies involved in the development of 42 youth-aimed apps have used software to track the apps' users online activity, which was subsequently sold to advertisers without consent of the parents.
A Yelp bot will deliver your sushi in San Francisco
While Amazon continues refining its delivery-by-UAV dream, Yelp is gearing up to test a grounded method to autonomously transport take out. The company is partnering with Marble to use their wheeled drone, which is designed to carry perishable cargo, to try out unmanned food delivery for its Seamless-like Yelp Eat24 service. Naturally, it's starting the drone delivery trials on the streets of San Francisco.
Yelp will help you find a gender-neutral bathroom
Yelp has announced that it will enable people to find gender-neutral restrooms when they're out and about. The company will add a feature to its desktop and mobile versions highlighting which businesses offer them. In addition, users will soon be able to directly search for businesses that offer gender-neutral bathrooms. The definition of which is a lavatory that's available to anyone, regardless of gender, and has a locking, single stall.
Yelp buys a company that helps you shrink restaurant wait times
Yelp partnered with Nowait last year to let you line up remotely at restaurants and, ideally, skip the physical queue altogether. So how well did it work? Quite well, apparently -- so much so that Yelp is acquiring Nowait outright. The buyout gives Yelp an opportunity to tightly integrate more of Nowait's technology, and should shrink the time it takes to go from finding a place to eat to scoring a table.
Apple, other tech giants will support transgender student's case
Several tech titans plan to sign an amicus (friend of the court) brief in support of a 17-year-old transgender student's fight in court, according to Axios. Apple, Microsoft, IBM, PayPal, eBay, Airbnb, Box, Yelp, GitHub, Salesforce, Slack and Tumblr are expected to back Gavin Grimm's legal battle against his school board for the right to use the bathroom that matches his gender identity. The amicus brief, created by LGBT organization Human Rights Campaign, will be filed in favor of Grimm for the Supreme Court hearing scheduled to take place on March 28th.
Yelp's redesigned homepage puts photos front and center
Yelpers everywhere will soon be greeted with a new homepage. Earlier today, Yelp announced it's rolling out a redesign that focuses on showcasing imagery from users, as well as content from different local services (think: not only restaurants). Yelp says this overhaul is also about making it easier for account holders to find what they're looking for, including businesses, popular categories and recent activity from others. The search bar is now placed front and center too, next to visuals from the community, something that Yelp hopes can make the experience more interactive for people on the site. The freshly minted homepage doesn't appear to be live for everyone yet, but you should see it show up in the coming days.
The Engadget Podcast Ep 16: Feds Watching
Managing editor Dana Wollman and senior editor Devindra Hardawar join host Terrence O'Brien to talk about the week's biggest tech news, including Nike's new self-lacing shoes, Netlix's offline mode and "yelfies." Then they'll rant about what's been bother them this week, whether that's DirecTV, crappy touchpads or Amazon's convoluted pile of apps. Lastly they'll try to unravel the complicated mess that is Rule 41 and what it means for privacy in America.
Yelp wants you to add a 'Yelfie' to your restaurant reviews
After letting its users virtually queue up for restaurants with a previous update, now Yelp wants them to put a face to the person behind each star-rating. With the service's amateur reviews shaping restaurant scenes around the globe, the influential platform's latest update allows its users to attach a selfie, or "Yelfie," as the site is unfortunately calling them, to their reviews.
Uber's redesigned app makes it faster to hail a ride
The Uber app is a mess. As the company has expanded its business, it's been ham-fisting new features into an already bursting-at-the-seams UI. Fortunately, the company is aware of the bloat and revealed today a redesigned app that will be rolling out to customers over the coming weeks.
Zagat's new iPhone app is like the best of Yelp and Foursquare
After buying the restaurant review company Zagat back in 2011, Google helped to modernize it with a new website, mobile apps and integration within Google Maps. Today, Zagat is getting its biggest upgrade yet on the iPhone, and it's good enough to make it your primary solution for discovering new places to eat. The app is now smart enough to recommend restaurants based on your location, as well as the time of day. That location awareness is a big part of what makes Foursquare's recommendations useful, and it's nice to see it finally show up in Zagat (albeit surprisingly late).
Yelp gets 'Pokémon Go' fever and adds Pokéstop filter
The Pokemon Go juggernaut continues its infestation of everyday services. Yelp has added a PokéStop filter to its search functions so you can make sure you're eating or shopping near one of the item-dropping locations.
Twitter taps Yelp for detailed location tagging in the UK
The next time you decide to add a location to one of your tweets, expect to see a lot more businesses and popular places in your list. That's because Twitter has teamed up with business listing and review site Yelp to supply location services for UK and Japanese users inside its app. It's very similar to the deal the social networking giant struck with Foursquare in the US last year, giving brands and (more importantly) followers a little more context around what it is you're doing.
Yelp gives you quotes for home services
Yelp is normally the service you use when you want to escape the home, but now it's aiming to be your go-to source for help in the home. It just launched a feature that gives you price quotes for all kinds of services, ranging from car repairs to event planning to plumbers. The option highlights those businesses that are most likely to respond quickly, and you can even bulk-message companies to quickly find out who has the best deal. Quotes are available now on the web and in the iOS app, and they'll be accessible within the Android app very soon.
