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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.
Yelpers are getting a show on The Food Network
The Food Network is teaming up with Yelp for a new show, according to Forbes, and it's aptly entitled 12 Hungry Yelpers. Forbes says it will use Yelp reviews to "help restaurants discover and fix their problems" and will focus on one restaurant per episode. The network hasn't released any details yet, but an executive from its parent company told Eater that it will be hosted by MasterChef season three finalist Monti Carlo. We don't know why restaurateurs would listen to Yelpers, but we're guessing their most hilarious, entertaining and snarky reviews make for a better show than critics' commentaries. We're just hoping that none of them turn out to be fake.
Outlook.com update brings a load of new features, including GIFs
Microsoft teased a revamped version of Outlook.com last year, including a preview that began in May. Today, the company announced that the updated web-based email service is now open to all. In addition to a redesigned look, Outlook.com migrated over to the Office 365 platform. New users who sign up for the first time will be privy to the update immediately and existing users can expect the changes to roll out over the coming weeks.
Amazon Echo links with Yelp to find info on local restaurants
It's such an obvious feature it's hard to believe it wasn't already there, but the latest update for Amazon's Echo lets it pull up Yelp recommendations for restaurants and other local businesses. Just ask about info on where to get Chinese food or pizza delivery, and it will send the Yelp-powered results to the Echo app on your phone or tablet. For it to work you'll need to have your local address set up in the Echo app, but that's it. Amazon says more local search results are coming soon, but for now you should also know it can help you easily stock up on Halloween candy. Just ask the speaker to "order Halloween candy" or "order Halloween chocolate" and it will -- provided you have voice purchasing enabled (read: disable voice purchasing before your kids find out about this feature).
Rate your friends like they're restaurants with Peeple
A 'Yelp'-style app for rating people is not a new idea, but nobody's been terrible enough to actually build one in real life -- until now. A startup company has launched an app called "Peeple" which has already raised $7.6 million in venture capital, according to the Washington Post. It lets anyone with a Facebook account and cell phone rate another person and assign them a star rating out of five in one of three categories: personal, professional and romantic. Though Peeple calls itself "a positivity app for positive people," the idea of the app is largely being panned on social media.
Yelp study claims that Google 'knowingly' worsens search results
Yelp really, really isn't a fan of Google's search rankings, and it's making sure that you know it. The location-based service has partnered with net neutrality pioneer Tim Wu on a study alleging that Google is "knowingly degrading" search results by peppering the findings with hits from its own services, such as Google+ reviews. The research project notes that test subjects were 45 percent more likely to click search results when they were purely "organic" (that is, more objective) versus the usual Google-influenced material. This is reportedly proof that Google is compromising the quality of your searches for the sake of helping its own business, and Yelp goes on to liken the Mountain View team to the monopolies of AT&T and Microsoft.
Yelp paves the way for simpler food ordering by snapping up Eat24
Yelp's targeting the wallets of lazy diners everywhere (and coming at Seamless and GrubHub in a big way) by gobbling up the online food ordering platform Eat24. The company, which is currently used by around 20,000 restaurants around the country, has actually been a partner of Yelp's since 2013 (at which point the online review giant was already eyeing it like a juicy slab of bacon). You can already place delivery and takeout orders from within Yelp's apps and websites, but the acquisition should allow the online review company to more seamlessly integrate Eat24's technology. It also makes Eat24 a much more desirable solution for restaurants. Right now GrubHub and Seamless (which merged a few years ago) cover around 32,000 restaurants around the U.S. and London, so Yelp's new baby has a lot of catching up to do.
Yelp: the FTC won't penalize us for review complaints
Yelp maintains that it doesn't game the reviews on its site or try to extort businesses that refuse to pay for ads. In fact, it's just published a blog post to air that the Federal Trade Commission has finished a year-long deep inquiry into its business practices and has chosen not to take any action against the website. Yelp even claims this is the second time the FTC has investigated the company and finished without penalizing it in any way. Part of the blog post reads: The FTC looked into our recommendation software, what we say to businesses about it, what our salespeople say about our advertising programs, and how we ensure that our employees are not able to manipulate the ratings and reviews that we display on our platform. After nearly a year of scrutiny, the FTC decided to close its investigation without taking further action.
Yelp settles with the FTC over claims it collected personal info from kids
The FTC is eager to crack down on any perceived online privacy violations, especially when they involve children -- and we just got a good demonstration of that eagerness today. Both Yelp and mobile app developer TinyCo have settled with the FTC over allegations that they knowingly scooped up kids' personal information without permission. Yelp is paying a $450,000 penalty because it didn't have an effective age screen in its apps, letting those under 13 sign up by themselves. TinyCo, meanwhile, is shelling out $300,000 after some of its kid-oriented games asked for email addresses in return for in-game currency. These aren't the biggest settlements we've seen by any stretch, but they'll hopefully serve as warning to any app creator that wants to collect your little ones' data.
California will fine companies that try to silence disgruntled customers
Remember the New York hotel that imposed $500 fines for any guest who wrote disparaging reviews on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor? The state of California does, and has decided that it wants to stop the practice of any business, including hotels and restaurants inserting "non-disparagement" clauses into their terms of business. Under the law, any outlet trying to enforce financial penalties onto upset keyboard warriors would be met with a $2,500 slap. Subsequent violations would set them back $5,000, and there's a $10,000 bonus non-prize if a company is found to be recklessly violating the rules. Let's hope that the trend carries over to other states, but also that some canny legislator widens the definition to cover gadget reviews for, er, no specific reason.
Yelp escapes extortion lawsuit unscathed, except for its reputation
For years, businesses have accused Yelp of running an extortion racket. If companies refused to pay for ads, Yelp would allegedly pull down some of their positive reviews (and wreck sales) until they gave in. Well, those accusations don't appear to hold much legal water; an appeals court has upheld a California judge's dismissal of a 2010 class action lawsuit that claimed Yelp was committing civil extortion. Needless to say, the recommendation service is ecstatic. It cites the ruling as proof that the shops simply had an "axe to grind" and were either trying to "draw attention away" from bad reviews or else prop up review manipulation schemes.
Yelp's iOS app now translates reviews you don't understand
Itching to squeeze in a last minute summer holiday? You may want to bring Yelp's updated iOS app with you as you traipse through the streets of Stockholm -- it now lets you translate foreign reviews on the fly with just a touch, thanks to a little help from Microsoft's Bing Translator. That means that reviews and recommendations left in any of the 15 languages Yelp supports (English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, French, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish and Japanese, if you were curious) are now fair game, perfect for making sure you don't venture into the wrong kebab joint.
New York hotel tried to charge $500 fines for negative online reviews
Big brands and colossal companies spend small fortunes to protect their online reputations, so what's a small boutique hotel to do when it's worried about bad reviews? Well, for an object lesson in what not to do, consider the case of Hudson, New York's Union Street Guest House. By now, the broad strokes have been well established: The company had a ridiculous policy featured on its website, under which bad reviews were punishable with $500 fines. Here's the offending bit, before the hotel excised it from the web: If you have booked the Inn for a wedding or other type of event anywhere in the region and given us a deposit of any kind for guests to stay at USGH there will be a $500 fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review of USGH placed on any internet site by anyone in your party and/or attending your wedding or event. If you stay here to attend a wedding anywhere in the area and leave us a negative review on any internet site you agree to a $500 fine for each negative review.
You can now message businesses directly through Yelp
Yelp has a very active community of reviewers, giving you plenty to consider as you search for the perfect restaurant, bar or spa. While the site gives you no shortage of opinions, sometimes you have something specific in mind -- like renting out an eatery for a rehearsal dinner -- that reviews don't answer. To help you find what you need, Yelp's added the ability to message businesses directly from the site.
New York City using Yelp reviews to track outbreaks of food poisoning
Remember when Yelp added hygiene inspection ratings to its restaurant reviews? Now, New York City is using the review service to work out which outlets are responsible for outbreaks of food poisoning. According to a study from the Center of Disease Control, researchers searched for words like "sick," "diarrhea" and "vomit" in reviews to look for any repeat offenders. Given that people don't normally report the odd case of "bad shrimp," these reviews are an easy way for authorities to stage interventions. This time out, for instance, the city was able to shut down three places that exhibited poor hygiene practices like poor sanitization, bare-hand contact with food and, best of all, live mice. Unfortunately, neither Yelp nor the City is revealing which businesses were found guilty, so we'd all best get scouring those reviews.
Yelp now shows the local businesses that let you pay with Bitcoin
Some online retailers are quick to say whether or not they'll accept Bitcoins, but local shops aren't always so forthcoming -- and community mapping efforts like CoinMap only reveal so much. It might not be hard to find a cryptocurrency-friendly store in the near future, though. Yelp has added a flag that lets business owners identify themselves as Bitcoin-friendly, making it easier to spot places that take virtual cash.
You can now search Yelp on mobile using emojis
Are your Twitter friends jumping down your throat for flooding them with emojis? Well, you might want to let off some emoji-filled steam on Yelp instead, because the business directory app now lets users search for establishments with the popular ideograms. Yes, it's just what it sounds like -- on mobile, the app parses any emoji you put in the search box (even if it's that smiling turd icon, as you can see after the break) and returns relevant results. It's fun, but unless you've memorized the symbols on your phone or tablet, it's not any more convenient or faster than typing in words. So, if you're scratching your head wondering why Yelp's developers would even bother adding the feature, the answer is, well, they don't exactly have a reason. A spokesperson told us that the app's engineers came up with the crazy idea during a recent company hackathon, and guess what? Yelp's higher-ups ended up loving it so much, they officially added it to the app.
Yahoo now shows Yelp reviews when you're searching for local businesses
Google has long made it easy to find reviews of local businesses in its search results, but you've been out of luck if you prefer Yahoo. You won't have much trouble scouting those locations after today, though. As hinted earlier this year, Yahoo has integrated Yelp's data into its searches, including reviews and photos. Look at a sushi place, for instance, and you'll find out when it's open, what it looks like, and whether or not its rolls are any good. Yahoo may just be closing a feature gap with the Yelp deal, but we're not going to complain if it means that more of our friends make informed decisions about where they shop.
Google's 'show me the menu' search brings the most important restaurant info up first
No matter how good the food is, it seems like many restaurants hide the most important info (what's cooking, and how much does it cost?) under a slew of sub pages, outdated Flash interfaces or bizarre PDF scans of printed pages. Google Search users can now pull up those details even faster and in a standardized interface on the desktop or mobile devices, simply by starting their search with "show me the menu." Add in the name of the restaurant and the city it's located in, and you should see the menu right on Google's page complete with prices, where available. Search Engine Land points out that Allie Brown spotted the feature in testing a few weeks ago, although it's not entirely clear where Google is pulling its info from -- menu aggregators like AllMenus.com, HTML tags embedded in restaurant websites or maybe an extension of Zagat. Either way, it seems like a command worth filing away when Yelp, Foursquare and other local info services fall short.
Yahoo reportedly set to surface Yelp reviews in search results
According to The Wall Street Journal, the next time you search for a chicken dinner on Yahoo you could be served up a Yelp review for the best bird in your hood. According to the paper's source, Yahoo CEO Marisa Mayer announced a partnership that would surface Yelp reviews and listing in Yahoo's search results, during a meeting Friday. Little else is known of the deal. While the struggling internet company continues to see revenue fall, its latest earnings report revealed that search revenues for Q4 2013 were up eight percent over the same quarter the year before. The company is clearly still invested in its bread-and-butter, but it's also made a push into content, signing names like David Pogue and Katie Couric to lead new news initiatives. During her CES keynote earlier this year, Mayer, who previously led search at Google, underlined Yahoo's commitment to search, revealing it added 869 partners, and conducted 600 related experiments in 2013.
