If you are looking for something near you and aren’t near your computer don’t worry! You can now find information at your fingers tips with the application, Yelp. Yelp is a website and mobile application that can pull up the information you need about where the nearest pizza place, gas station and café is. You can also read reviews about what is the best in the city. If you are near to the city or traveling, you can pull up a map and all contact information of the business easily.

How It Works

Yelp works by providing users with real reviews, suggestions, maps and directories for restaurants, public washrooms, bars and more on your smart device. This app can be used while you are traveling and are looking for something that has been reviewed by many other people, instead of reading promotional materials. Users can also find directions and things like gas when traveling through an unknown city or town and running low on fuel.

Developer

The developer of Yelp is MRL Ventures. The Yelp website and application suggest that users rate the business with a system of pointing from one to five.

Price

Yelp is a free travel application that can help you to locate what you are looking for in a city that you are unfamiliar with.

Pros/Cons

Yelp is a helpful directory while out on the go because it can pull up information including numbers, directions and user reviews easily. It is easy to narrow down your search to exactly what you are looking for because you can search by ‘price’, ‘distance’ and ‘hours’. It has a feature that is augmented reality with Monocle. This works by putting an overlay of business information onto what you view through your smart device’s camera. The user interface is easy to navigate using bright graphics and pictures to show you what’s around you. The most well received feature of Yelp is the ease of reading business reviews on a variety of different things from dining experiences to local attractions.

It is noted that up to 20% of reviews found on Yelp at any given time are fake, written by paid writers or business owners themselves. That is why Yelp has tried their best to steer companies away from this practice by flagging their reviews with a consumer alert, which does not look good on behalf of the business.

Yelp is a terrific application that can help you to become familiar with areas, find what you are looking for and read real reviews to help you decide where you would like to venture to.