News

News

• #News, #Product

Today we’ve begun rolling out a new business attribute that helps users identify businesses that offer gender neutral restrooms to patrons. What constitutes a gender neutral restroom, you ask? Gender neutral restrooms are accessible to persons of any gender and are a locking, single-stall bathroom. On desktop and mobile versions of Yelp, users will be… Read more

Yelp sign
News

• #News, #Public Policy

Yelp is proud to join the Human Rights Campaign’s amicus brief in support of Gavin Grimm. With the help of the ACLU and others, Gavin sued his local school board in Virginia, which had denied him access to the boys’ restroom at his school because he is a transgender boy. A federal court denied his… Read more

Yelp acquires waitlist service Nowait
Businesses

• #Business Owners, #News, #Restaurants

Last year Yelp integrated Nowait, the industry’s leading waitlist system and real time seating tool. Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve acquired Nowait, expanding our ability to enable hungry diners to get in line remotely and empowering restaurants to share real-time seating availability in the Yelp app. Waitlist functionality is the perfect complement to booking… Read more

News

• #News

Yelp has joined nearly a hundred other companies nationwide, from throughout the tech industry and beyond, to file an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit challenging President Trump’s recent Executive Order on immigration. As has been widely reported, among other changes, this Executive Order seeks to block nationals from certain Middle Eastern and African countries from… Read more

Carl Bialik Yelp Data Science editor
Data

• #News, #Data

Yelp’s Data Science team has dug in on projects ranging from the fun to serious forecasting, and we’re excited to announce that Carl Bialik will be joining Yelp as our new Data Science Editor to further our exploration of all the ways Yelp data can inform and inspire the world. Yelp data has been powering… Read more

News

• #News, #Consumer Protection Initiative

Today we’re releasing a new round of 90 Consumer Alerts to notify consumers of businesses that have attempted to mislead them. We already discourage businesses from asking their customers to write reviews because review solicitation programs tend to bias selectively toward positive reviewers. Our recommendation software works to sniff out these subtle biases, which will… Read more

Don’t Ask For Reviews: Why Yelp Does Not Recommend Solicited Reviews
News

• #Business Owners, #News, #News

It’s obvious why a review that is paid for or written in exchange for a discount or freebie may be biased: the reviewer might be willing to shower false praise on a business if they get something of monetary value in return. Yelp lets consumers know when we see this behavior with a Consumer Alert… Read more

Yelp’s Small Business Pulse Survey: Millennials, Minorities Most Optimistic About Small Business Growth in 2017
Businesses

• #English, #Business Owners, #News

Last year we launched Yelp’s first annual Small Business Pulse survey, exploring the concerns and hopes of small business owners in America. This year, in our second annual poll, we tapped over 1,100 Yelp-listed small businesses across industries to dig into issues they face and opportunities they see for the new year, and to get… Read more

Yelp Foundation Gives Local 2016 badge winner
News

• #News, #Yelp Foundation

I’m excited to announce the names of nearly 200 local nonprofits that are this year’s winners of Yelp Foundation Gives Local grants! In total, the Yelp Foundation will contribute $640,000 toward 192 local nonprofit organizations, with grants of $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000 going to each of three winners in 64 cities nationwide. See the full… Read more