Yelp App Gets Personalized Homescreen and Search Results

Yelp has announced an update to its app for iOS that provides users with a personalized homescreen and search results.

As part of the new update, users will be able to indicate their personal dietary and accessibility preferences, lifestyle attributes — like whether they’re a parent or homeowner — and things they like to do. Yelp will do the heavy lifting by processing the information in real-time and transforming the user’s homescreen and search results into a completely personalized experience represented by Yelp’s newly created heart symbol — including search result rankings, shortcuts to filters, and personalized highlights that tell the user why they might like the business based on their preferences.

“As Yelp turns 15 this year, we’re embarking on one of our most significant product updates with the introduction of a new personalized experience,” said Vivek Patel, Yelp’s chief product officer. “Yelp has always been a helpful discovery platform that surfaces great local businesses based on your search. By making it more personalized, we’re saving people time and giving them an easy way to find the right business for them. Now, Yelp will help you discover businesses and activities based on who you are and what you like to do.”




Personalize Your Experience on Yelp
Yelp is making it easier and faster than ever to find a business that’s right “for you” based on personal preferences:
● Dietary Preferences: 32 million Americans1 have food allergies and many more care about what they eat. Yelp is now surfacing information that helps people discover which restaurants have options for those who are gluten-free, halal, keto, kosher, pescatarian, vegan or vegetarian. Personalized highlights within their search results will identify if a restaurant has some or many food options based on their dietary preferences.
● Food and Drink: People can choose from more than 30 food and drink categories — from brunch to happy hour, and Chinese to pizza — letting Yelp confidently recommend cuisines they’ll enjoy most.
● Interests: The new personalized Yelp experience will suggest more than just restaurants. People can also select their favorite things to do, so Yelp can recommend activities most relevant to them — including surfacing live music bars, farmers markets, date night spots, suggesting kids activities, hikes and more.
● Lifestyle: Parents and pet owners can better plan their next outing with personalized shortcuts to filters. We’re also helping people find their next go-to business, whether that’s a new hair salon, massage spot or landscaper.
● Accessibility: People who need wheelchair accessibility or gender neutral restrooms will benefit from greater visibility of relevant search filters and personalized highlights within their search results.



The option to personalize Yelp will begin rolling out to iOS and Android app users today. You can download Yelp from the App Store for free.


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