Today, Yelp announced a few new updates that will enhance users’ search experience and give them the ability to add videos to their reviews. The company is introducing an AI-powered search system to better understand and address customers’ search intent. As part of the upgrade, Yelp will also generate helpful snippets from reviews that appear on the business listing search results. Additionally, users will find it easier to refine their searches with the new “Surprise Me” feature and clickable category tags.
Videos are the latest addition to Yelp reviews, allowing users to post high-resolution 12 second clips about their experience. These could be anything, like a tour of a hotel, or simply a highlight of a new hike. Yelp also unveiled four new review reactions that will enable members to show their likes and dislikes.
Finally, Yelp Guaranteed is being introduced to give users whose service or quality is not up to par a chance to get their money returned up to $2,500. In addition, the new login experience eliminates the need to remember passwords every time you want to log into the account.
Yelp is an American publicly traded company that connects consumer to businesses and provides reviews on local service businesses. Founded in 2004 by former PayPal employees, the business was later rebranded as Yelp in 2005. By 2018, Yelp had 185 million unique monthly visitors as well as 71 million reviews. The company also boasts its presence in more than 30 countries around the world. Its mission is to cultivate joyful moments and powreful connections between people and local businesses.
Jeremy Stoppelman is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Yelp. He was instrumental in developing the free online service and the growth of the company’s brand over the years. Stoppelman studied computer engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign before moving to Silicon Valley. He is a very active CEO and is always looking to innovate and improve the services his platform offers.
