Yelp Official Blog

From the Yelp Workshop

At Yelp, we’re constantly at work on exciting developments. Whether it’s rolling out Yelp Daily Deals or building back end features that you may not necessarily see, our team is always tinkering to make the site easier and more enjoyable to use. And this week we’ve rolled out several features that fall under our mantra of Useful, Funny and Cool that we wanted to share with you!

You may have already been familiar with a feature called Review Highlights that we launched several months ago for restaurants and bars. For businesses that have a lot of content, our magical “Yelp Robots” (constructed by our talented Yelp Engineers) analyze reviews, pulling out the tastiest and most relevant nuggets for your reading pleasure. Today we’ve not only made Review Highlights even better, but we’ve also added them to a handful of other business categories including hotels, museums, landmarks and amusements parks. We’re hoping this makes it even easier for you to determine if a business, service or, er, gigantic green monument fits your needs.

 

 

We’ve also updated the way you can share reviews via a new feature called “Review Share.” Yelpers far and wide had been asking us for a way to keep track of the places they’ve checked in on Yelp so they can remember to review those businesses in the future. Well, ask and you shall receive!

 

 

Now after you’ve written a review, you get a friendly reminder about drafts you may have started, places you’ve made a reservation, added a photo to or checked in at. C’mon, if you’re the Duke or Duchess, you should really be letting people know why you’re rocking the royalty!

We’ve also heard -- and we agree! -- that one of the great things about using Yelp is you can get a good sense of a business by checking out all the photos that people have uploaded. And because you yelpers love to snap pics of your dishes, duds, dogs, and more, we made it even easier for you to share! Instead of having to upload one at a time, now you can upload multiple pics at once!

 

 

And last but not least: we just updated our wildly popular Yelp Android app! Now you can find your Yelp friends via Facebook and your Address Book, as well as mucho improvement in search.

Don’t worry -- this isn’t all we have in our bag of tricks. Expect more Yelp bells and whistles on the site and our apps coming your way soon!

 

 

Sneak Peak at Yelp Deals

Yelp’s mission from the beginning has been to connect consumers with
great local businesses. Members of the Yelp community have been and
continue to be the driving force behind that mission. Historically, we
have provided value to our 36 million monthly unique visitors by
helping them find a great local business when they need a product or
service.

As you will see today in San Diego, and soon in other cities, we have
been working with some of the best local businesses -- as identified by the Yelp community -- to highlight some great deals for our users.

Staying true to our roots, we’re excited to feature special offers
from great local businesses that are worthy of our community’s
attention.

This morning we turn our attention to San Diego with a Yelp Deal from
The Little Yoga Studio. This follows a great bargain we offered last
week from The Hidden Spa.

More to come as we continue testing deals in markets like San
Francisco and New York, but we've been pleased
with the feedback received from the community thus far.

Stay tuned!

Don't Ask for Reviews.

(Please don't do this.)

Yelp is a website where people read and write reviews about their favorite local businesses. Therefore, it might seem counter-intuitive that we actually discourage business owners from asking their customers to write reviews.

Why would an online review site discourage review solicitation?

Two big reasons:

1. Would-be customers might not trust you. Let’s face it, most business owners are only going to solicit reviews from their happy customers, not the unhappy ones. Over time, these self-selected reviews create intrinsic bias in the business listing -- a bias that savvy consumers (read: yelpers) can smell from a mile away. No business is perfect, and it’s impossible to please 100% of your customers 100% of the time.

2. The solicited reviews may get filtered, and that will drive you crazy. Solicited reviews often get filtered by our automated review filter. Why do these reviews sometimes get filtered? Well, we have the unfortunate task of trying to help our users distinguish between real and fake reviews, and while we think we do a pretty good job at it with our fancy computer algorithms, the harsh reality is that solicited reviews often fall somewhere in between. Imagine, for example, the business owner who “solicits” a review by sticking a laptop in front of a customer and smilingly invites her to write a review while he looks over her shoulder. We don’t need these kinds of reviews, so it shouldn’t be a surprise when solicited reviews get filtered.      

Yelp exists to connect people with great local businesses. We do this by providing people with as much trustworthy information as we can. If consumers don’t trust our content, people stop using Yelp, and everyone loses: consumers don’t have a resource they can trust to make spending decisions, would-be customers stop visiting your business listing.

There’s no silver bullet for a great reputation: the best way to succeed on Yelp is by focusing on great customer service (building out a robust business listing using biz.yelp.com’s free tools also doesn’t hurt).

There is a way to let your customers know you’re on Yelp without being overly solicitous.

The power of word-of-mouth is that folks generally trust recommendations when they occur as part of an organic process.  There is an important distinction between “Hey, write a review about me on Yelp,” [BAD] and “Hey, check us out on Yelp!” [GOOD]. It’s the difference between actively pursuing testimonials and simply creating awareness of your business through social media outlets.

The latter allows consumers to vet your online reputation without feeling like they’re being solicited. To an established Yelp community member, a reminder of your Yelp presence can act like a dog-whistle prompting them to share their feedback about your business with fellow Yelpers.

Here are three ways to remind customers on Yelp without being overly solicitous:

1. Stick a “Find us on Yelp” image on your website and/or print it out for your front counter or window. These have even been spotted on business-branded vehicles. All of these images are available via our Flickr (image sharing) page.*

2. Include a link to your Yelp business listing in your email signature with the words, “Check us out on Yelp!”

3. Embed a badge on your website. This handy widget can help you generate the necessary code to do this.

* - A word from the lawyers: “Please don’t alter these images or imply sponsorship, endorsement, or false association with Yelp! Inc.”

Yelp Engineers Get a Blog!

At Yelp, we’re yelpers by nature which means we love to share. We’ve done this via reviews, but also on our Yelp Official Blog which you’re reading here and our Yelp Community Blog that chronicles the extraordinary events our Community Managers are hosting in over 40 cities worldwide.

But now, it’s time for the folks behind the scenes at Yelp to get a word in: our engineers! Today we’re excited to unveil our Official Yelp Engineering Blog that will peel back the covers on the problems and issues our team tackles everyday at a fast growing company like Yelp to the fun and creative projects we find to hack and code in our spare time.

If you’re interested in learning more about what makes us tick internally, as well as keep up to date on all our product developments, job openings and more, check it out here!

Yelp's 2nd Hackathon: iPad Kegbots, Coding and Guido van Rossum

Just six, short months ago, Yelp hosted its first ever Hackathon: 24 hours devoted to our engineering team to work on projects they think would be useful, funny or cool for Yelp. While we originally planned to make this an annual geekfest, with the amount of creativity and coding put forth, we thought: “Hey! Let’s do this more often!”

This time around, we learned from past mistakes and kicked it off with a champagne breakfast (bubbles make everything better, right?), Yelp branded beanies and a special guest star. In between building up Kegbots and concierge services, the legendary Guido van Rossum, creator of Python, stopped by to do a few code reviews and talk shop with some of our engineers.



After we got through TOTALLY FREAKING OUT from the honor, it was time to announce the winners with an awards ceremony in true Yelp-style:

Useful: Adam D., Evrhet M., Mark A., and Minh T. created a Q&A service that would let users ask and answer questions about a particular business.

Funny: Need to know when we’re launching our next product or how many users have signed up today? Then look no further than the Yelp Jumbo-Tron-O-Matic courtesy of Ben B., Jon M., Eskil O., Evan K., Daniel C., and James B.

Cool: At Yelp, we don’t mess around with our beer. To make sure we never run dry or get a bad pint, the geniuses on this team -- John B., Gabe H., Alex D., Julien R., and Jeff M. -- built the Kegbot. Controlled by an iPad app, you can tell how much beer is being emptied (and at what rate: cough, John), as well as leave a 5 star review for your brew. See more below!

While many more projects took place, including such gems that you might see on the site in the future like photo search and site personalization, don’t think it was just our long-time engineers and product managers dominating at the Hackathon. Our badass team of engineering interns rolled up their sleeves and got their hands dirty, as well.

Who knows what will happen at the next Hackathon, but if you’re interested in finding out for yourself, then apply to join our team here!

Yelp and Google: Breakin' it down at CrunchUp

On Friday, Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp's CEO and Co-founder took center stage with John Hanke, Google's VP of Product (maps, earth and local search). The theme for this year's CrunchUp was Social Currency "where the web meets real world commerce."  The two were invited to share their thoughts on how local search is evolving, the role of mobile local search and field a question or two about the relationship between the two companies.

Here's the video of the trialogue courtesy of TechcrunchTV. 

What's a Yelp Passport - and how do I get one?

Over the years, Yelp has done a ton of great parties, events, restaurant, Happy Hour, gym, spa promotions and more in the 40+ Yelp communities we have worldwide. But we know there are MANY amazing local businesses in our own neighborhoods from dry cleaners, yoga instructors, optometrists, pooch pamperers, refrigerator repairmen, the list goes on! While we use these businesses everyday, they don’t always make for a desirable party destination (well, most of the time). So we got to thinking, what could we do where businesses of all shapes, sizes and types could participate in Yelp events?

Then, light bulb! Passport to Yelp was born.

Started last year, Passport to Yelp is a promotion that highlights a neighborhood and the businesses that make it special. Yelpers can download their own Yelp Passport that is chock full of deals and steals offered by participating businesses and can be used all week long. In fact, since we started Passport to Yelp, we’ve had over 70 small businesses participate in cities including New York, Boston and Washington DC. What’s important about Passport to Yelp is that everybody wins -- businesses get new customers through their door and yelpers get to (re)discover what makes their city so awesome. Aw, group hug!

But what hoods are next? LA is hosting not one, but TWO Passport events the week of August 2nd in Redondo Beach and Little Tokyo. Yelpers can take advantage of 15% nail treatments, 50% off concert tickets, “High Tea” on the skinny and much, much more at the over 50 businesses you can find by downloading your own Yelp Passport or searching for “Passport” via our Yelp iPhone app.

For those cities we haven’t hit yet, don’t fret! Our Community Managers are working with business owners and small business associations to identify hoods coast to coast that are interested in participating. If you have suggestions on future cities or are a business interested in learning more, let us know here!

Yelp Names Vlado Herman CFO

Faster than BP’s falling share price.
More powerful than a bull market on steroids.
Able to leap across the Atlantic in a single bound.

Look! Up in the sky!

It's a bird. It's a plane. It's our new CFO!

 

Yes, it's Vlado Herman - financial strategist steeped in Silicon Valley culture who joined Yelp’s management team in December 2006 with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.

This beloved suit was immediately embraced by the entire crew as a fun loving father figure who took the company’s finances by the horns and wrestled them to perfect order. Rising quickly through the ranks he took on everything from business planning to building out new offices, forecasting to employee benefits. Needless to say he has played an integral role in our company’s growth to date and we’re stoked that he’ll be a main character as Yelp’s storyline evolves.

Not even kryptonite can bring this Sup(H)erman down.

Sprichst du Yelp?

Das war ein aufregender Monat für Deutschland: Ein neuer Präsident, der sensationelle Auftritt bei der WM, und jetzt ... Yelp.de!

Ja, ganz richtig: auch Deutsche können jetzt Beiträge über ihre Lieblingsläden lesen und schreiben, über die besten Boutiquehotels, Biergärten und über die besten BMW-Werkstätten. Über eine Currywurstbude in Berlin, einen ausgeflippten Spielzeugladen (nicht nur für Kinder!) oder einen kleinen Familiencafé in München. Wir freuen uns ganz besonders auf unsere zweite nicht-englischsprachige Seite, auch weil wir schon vor dem Launch ziemlich viele Besucher aus dieser Region verzeichnet haben. Die Deutschen sind weltweit für ihr wirtschaftliches und technisches Geschick bekannt, und wir denken, dass Yelp hier super ankommen wird!
 

Wie also wird das Ganze in Deutschland funktionieren? Ähnlich wie schon bei Yelp France haben wir die ganze Seite auf Deutsch übersetzt, und das wird auch die Standardansicht sein. Optional kann Yelp.de allerdings auch in allen anderen Sprachen anzeigt werden, die Yelp unterstützt. Das gilt auch für die übrigen Seiten von Yelp, d.h. User können sich die englischen Seiten auf deutsch oder französisch anzeigen lassen und in diesen Sprachen auch ihre Bewertungen abgeben. Im Moment bieten wir zwar noch keine Übersetzungen von Bewertungen an – aber dieses Feature steht bei uns ganz oben auf der Liste. Den Anfang in Deutschland machen Yelp Communities mit Community Managern in München und Berlin; und wir sind schon sehr gespannt darauf, wie die Deutschen Yelp.de annehmen werden, als ein ganz einzigartiges Verzeichnis von großartigen Unternehmen vor Ort.

Und wo sonst könnt Ihr Yelp demnächst erwarten? Schwer zu sagen im Moment. In weiteren Ländern vertreten zu sein, ist für uns jedoch eine von drei Top-Prioritäten dieses Jahres. Wir legen ja gerade erst so richtig los.

Hot on Yelp: 50% off Salon and Spa Services!

If you live in Houston, prepare to get gorgeous for less – as Hot on Yelp returns! Get pampered and prettified at some of the city’s highest-rated businesses with 15 sizzling specials on highlights, massages, facials, waxing, laser hair removal, and more... all half off the regular price.

These divine deals can be purchased in the form of certificates for one week only: from Wednesday, July 21st through the 28th*. They can be redeemed for up to a full year though, so you can indulge in pure spa bliss at your leisure. You can also buy extras to give as gifts to friends, family, coworkers, your significant other, etc. Now that's a good-looking promo!

From manicures to manzillians, the heat is on. Click here for more deets!

*Limited supply. Buy now!