Yelp Official Blog

Get your Culture on with Yelp!

Move over Boy George! Starting October 1, seven of our fabulous community managers will be kicking off The Yelp Culture Club, a month-long showcasing of their city’s artsy side.

From well-known establishments like the Detroit Historical Museum, which is hosting three free nights for yelpers, to some exceptional hidden gems like Bella Blue in New Orleans who is offering up free burlesque lessons and Small Point Cafe in Providence, RI where baristas will hold free cupping classes - Yelp’s giving locals access to a variety of free (or heavily discounted) special events!

Keep an eye out for Culture Clubs to pop up in other cities in the future. In the meantime, just head over to Yelp.com and search for whatever your heart desires: from museums to opera houses to art galleries and beyond.

Anyone can participate - just click below for more information or to RSVP for various events in your city!

Boston
Dallas
Detroit
New Orleans
Orlando
Pittsburgh
Providence

Pew Internet Study: How People Learn About Their Local Community

A 5-part Pew Internet Study came out this week that takes a deeper look at “How people learn about their local community” We found some of the facts to be particularly interesting and wanted to highlight a few of them here:

• “For adults generally, the Internet is a main source for information about restaurants and other local businesses.” In fact, 56% of Americans rely on the Internet for information specifically on restaurants and other local businesses.
• When it comes to searching for information about local businesses, age isn’t a factor: like consumers under 40, Pew found that the 40+ crowd is also beginning to use the internet to research local businesses.
• “Now, information services like Yelp, which offers citizen reviews and restaurant information... are mainstays in many communities [and] the audience has gravitated to [these] new platforms.”
• “Only small percentages of adults said they relied most on social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter for local information. Those sites are included in the internet category, but within this category run a distant third behind search engine and special topic sites.”

(Photo Credit: Pew Internet Study)

While this might not be news to our hardcore yelpers or savvy business owners, it is a good reminder that people are increasingly coming online to discover local information. Time Magazine, who also covered the Pew Study, noted: "Clearly, Yelp has done its job well.” So, if you haven’t already, we’d encourage you to unlock your Yelp listing via biz.yelp.com to engage with current -- and potential -- customers!

Grüezi auf Yelp

Hoch die Tassen! Yelp ist ab sofort auch in der Schweiz zuhause. Wir hier bei Yelp freuen uns sehr über den Zuwachs und sind natürlich sehr gespannt wie die Schweizer auf die neue Webseite reagieren werden. Werden sie uns nun vielleicht endlich verraten, wo’s denn nun die beste Schokolade zu kaufen gibt? Denn immerhin verzehrt der Schweizer durchschnittlich ja ca. 11 kg Schokolade im Jahr...

Aber die Schweizer sind ja nicht nur einsame Spitze im Schokolade-Essen: neben dem effektivsten Transportsystem auf der Welt und den höchsten Bergen in Europa, hat sich auch die schweizer Gastro-Szene in den letzten 10 Jahren an die Spitze geschlagen – davon ist vor allem in Zürich viel zu spüren. Zürich ist das Zuhause von vielen sogenannten „hot spots“, wie z.B. dem Josef und gesellen sich zu den eher traditionsreichen Restaurants, wie die Kronenhalle. Alle locken sie vor allem diejenigen Gäste an, die sich über gutes Essen, mehrsprachige Unterhaltungen und spontane Livemusik erfreuen.

Wie ihr sehen könnt, sind wir sehr von Zürich begeistert und werden diese Stadt daher auch als Ausgangsort für unser schweizer Abenteuer nehmen. Immerhin gibt es in Zürich die meisten Clubs pro Kopf in Europa und wir finden, dass wir damit bestens hierhin passen. Aber keine Panik, obwohl wir uns zuerst auf Zürich konzentrieren werden, können die Yelper über Geschäfte in allen schweizer Städten berichten können: Genf, Basel, Bern, Luzern, Dörfli ...

Aber nun haben wir genug geredet – dieser Link bringt dich auf dem schnellsten Wege in die Schweiz: Yelp.ch.

Not fluent in German? Here's the English translation!

Our First Big, Fat Yelp Wedding!

We often joke here at Yelp that we’re "not a dating site” -- but there are times when our yelpers do meet, fall in love and sometimes even get married (and have twins!) And when talking to these loved-up yelpers, it makes sense. After reading each other’s reviews online and meeting in-person offline at our Yelp Elite events, yelpers quickly get a sense of who they have things in common with and sometimes it’s too good to ignore. One thing’s for sure: you likely won’t get treated to Taco Bell on your first date!

While there have been a few proposals, marriages and even babies as a result of Yelp, last week marked our first ever official Yelp wedding event! On Tuesday, September 19, Yelp Boston hosted the wedding and reception of Dave F. and Diana R. -- both active members of the Yelp Boston community -- who said their "I Dos" in front of a few hundred yelpers at an official Yelp Elite Event!

Surprised? In the beginning, so was the groom: "At first it was kind of funny, but then it started to make a lot of sense. Over the last year and a half, I've been pretty active in the Yelp community. We've made lots of friends by going to various events in that time, and many of the people we would have invited to the wedding would have been people from Yelp anyway. Doing this event gave us a chance to make the wedding what we wanted: a fun time to celebrate with many of our friends and family."

While we still maintain we’re not a dating site, we love the fact that over the years, Yelp has created such a meaningful and authentic community -- one that supports each other during the good times and the bad.

We know the Yelp Community far and wide will join us when we say congrats to Dave and Diana -- and we wish you many future yelpers!

(And in true Yelp fashion, you can see the reviews for the wedding here).

Avete Detto Che Vi Piace l'Italia?

Ce lo avete chiesto da un po'e adesso siamo felici di annunciarvi che ci siamo: Yelp Italia è on-line (yelp.it)!

Gli italiani sono famosi nel mondo come trend setter nella moda e nel cibo; la cultura italiana si basa sulla famiglia, gli amici e la comunità, in un modo che molti nel mondo invidiano. Gli utenti di Yelp in Italia possono  adesso leggere e condividere recensioni e opinioni con la grande comunità mondiale di Yelp sui posti migliori (e anche quelli meno buoni...) che si trovano nella loro zona.

Con recensioni che andranno dalla trattoria tipica più genuina all'outlet di moda meglio fornito, dall’officina consigliata dove fare il tagliando allo scooter al posto in cui si può affittare una Ferrari a un prezzo ragionevole, ci auguriamo che Yelp diventerà uno strumento utilissimo e divertente anche per gli italiani come lo è per gli yelpers di tutto il mondo.

Gli utenti di Yelp nel mondo potranno scegliere di navigare in Yelp.it in italiano o in inglese.

Yelp.it supporta anche le lingue inglese, francese, tedesco, olandese e spagnolo, per rispondere alle esigenze di un paese che diventa sempre più multi-culturale, e come preziosa risorsa anche per i milioni di turisti che ogni anno visitano l’Italia.

Inizialmente il focus sarà sullo sviluppo delle comunità locali di Milano e Roma, ma le recensioni riguarderanno tutta Italia. È sufficiente andare sul sito, cercare, scoprire il mondo di Yelp e
condividere le opinioni sui migliori esercizi commerciali della vostra zona.

Yelp.it e le app di Yelp per iPhone e Android in italiano sono già disponibili.

Benvenuti in Yelp!

(Don't speak Italian? It's cool, read on below for English text)

Seeking a Level Playing Field...

Yelp helps consumers find great local businesses. One important way consumers find Yelp is through a search on Google.

You may have heard that a number of government officials are investigating whether Google has violated state and federal anti-trust laws. The Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys general and a U.S. Senate subcommittee are all trying to determine if Google is competing fairly in the marketplace, or if they have acted in ways that are anti-competitive.

Because Google competes against Yelp to provide consumers with the best information about local businesses, these government groups have asked Yelp to discuss our experiences with Google’s conduct.

We have responded to these requests and told officials that we believe Google has acted anti-competitively in at least two key ways: by misusing Yelp review content in their competing Places product and by favoring their own competing Places product in search results.

We have been invited to participate in a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust hearing about this issue later today; below you can read the testimony I will deliver. I am thankful for the Senate’s interest in this issue and honored to be asked to assist in ensuring fair competition on the Internet for consumers and small businesses alike.

Written Testimony

Exhibits

Oral Remarks

 

College Rivalries: Who’s #1 According to Yelpers

College football season officially kicks off this week and with it, the teams of some the most historic college rivalries are going head to head on the field. But there’s been another battle brewing: the claim for Yelp fame -- and alumni from universities far and wide have weighed in on Yelp why their Alma mater is the best!

Since I played offensive tackle for the mighty Aztecs of San Diego State University -- and as far as we know, there are no ex-college football players in the engineering department -- who better to break down all of the best college rivalries on Yelp? (Well, there might be someone better, but they asked me and I said yes.) With that, we decided to have a little fun with this rivalry theme and pitted the fiercest college competitors against each other to see which Universities lay claim to the biggest glory of them all: the highest rating on Yelp!

How’d we do it? In order to determine the ultimate victors, we first had to do a little math. We wanted to give a school in a smaller Yelp community (e.g., University of Oklahoma in Norman) a fighting chance against a school in a larger community (e.g., University of Texas in Austin), so we used something called the Wilson Score that looks at the proportion of total reviews and ratings of these schools on Yelp. This formula basically levels the playing field for a school that may not have as many overall reviews as its rival, but still has some serious 5-star game.

Without further delay (that would be a 5 yard penalty), read on to find out if your school came in #1!

How to Yelp

With over 58 million unique visitors last month, we know quite a few people are already familiar with Yelp and how to use it. But sometimes, even our most loyal fans are surprised at the many ways you can use Yelp.

Erica Dermer of The Next Generation took matters into her own hands with this post on “How to Yelp”. She provides 9 tips on how users and business owners can approach the site; from how to read and contribute reviews, to taking advantage of our mobile apps in order to suss out what yelpers are saying the best items before purchasing.

Check out her post to read her tips in full. Do you agree or disagree? Have surprising ways you’ve used Yelp? Share them with us via @Yelp or our Facebook page.