Yelp Releases New Discovery, Contribution, Services and AI-powered Features

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP), the company that connects people with great local businesses, today is announcing its Winter Product Release with more than 20 new features that elevate the Yelp experience for both consumers and business owners. The company is releasing new AI-powered business summaries that make it even easier for people to find a business that fits their needs at a glance and new Recognitions celebrate and distinguish reviewers who are passionate about a specific food, cuisine or nightlife category. A new AI-powered visual home feed and updated search experience enhance discovery, helping consumers quickly and easily find their new favorite restaurant. While new updates to the services experience, including enhancements to Request a Quote and new 'Projects' features, help simplify finding the right service professional for their needs. Lastly, new data-driven features for business owners and advertisers on the Yelp for Business experience surface unique insights that help them grow and succeed on Yelp.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240130148539/en/

Yelp announces a series of new discovery, contribution, services and AI-powered features, enhancing connections between consumers and local businesses. (Graphic: Business Wire)

“We’re continuing to enhance the search and discovery experience for consumers on Yelp, as well as unlock more value for business owners,” said Craig Saldanha, chief product officer at Yelp. “These new features harness our rich, trusted content to inspire even more meaningful connections across the platform, from supporting the contributors who make Yelp the one-stop local platform we are today to helping local businesses and service professionals thrive in their communities. Rolling out features that make life easier, delight our users and leverage advanced technology allow us to deliver a seamless consumer experience and more effectively match businesses with valuable leads.”

Enhancing the business discovery and review experience on Yelp

In 2023, tens of millions of reviews, photos and videos were contributed to Yelp. With its commitment to delivering helpful and reliable content, the platform continues to build new features to engage users and inspire them to contribute high-quality content.

• New AI-powered home feed: Yelp’s new home feed experience on iOS uses AI to help consumers discover new businesses in their community — surfacing relevant user photos, Collections from Yelp Elites and video content from nearby businesses. In the coming months, the homepage will also feature user videos and roll out on Android.
• A more visual iOS search experience: New updates throughout the Yelp search journey create a more visual and engaging experience for consumers. From the beginning of the search experience, a new suggestions page highlights popular and recent searches. For restaurant, food and nightlife searches, users will find more visual, photo-heavy business listings, a new “People also search for” component that helps users narrow down their choices with search recommendations and new carousels that highlight user photos of popular dishes for frequently searched foods. This new search experience will be available on Android later this year.
• AI-powered business summaries: Yelp is using LLMs to parse recent reviews and surface unique descriptions about restaurant, food and nightlife businesses at the top of the business page — highlighting elements such as the atmosphere, service, amenities, value, or a popular dish. Business summaries will roll out to Yelp’s Android app and website later this year.
• Recognitions: To celebrate Yelp's engaged contributors, users can now earn Recognitions for writing reviews in more than 165 restaurants, food and nightlife categories — including tacos, cocktails, coffee and more. Recognitions are earned for writing at least three reviews within a year for businesses within the same select category and are featured in the ‘Achievements’ section on the ‘Me Tab’ in the Yelp iOS app. Additional categories and platforms will roll out later this year.
• More review topics: To alleviate writer’s block when users are drafting a review, Yelp is expanding its interactive review topics to new categories across home, local, professional and auto services, as well as beauty, shopping, health and medical. Review topics light up green when common themes are covered in reviews to remind reviewers of helpful details that other people would want to know about.

Streamlining the services experience and connecting people with pros faster