OREANDA-NEWS. Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP), the company that connects consumers with great local businesses, is announcing the launch of a new developer program to meet increasing demand for local data and content for mobile apps, platforms, products and services. Yelp Fusion includes access to much broader content and sophisticated search tools for developers and partners and a new initiative to integrate the Yelp Fusion API into developer curriculum and education.

Yelp now gives developers more photos at a much higher quality as well as more review content and the ability to easily feature restaurants that offer food ordering for delivery. Helpful attributes like hours of operation and pricing are now also available in the Yelp Fusion API for the first time.

“As devices and services are increasingly expected to be locally aware, Yelp content is more important than ever. We are delighted at the amazing array of independent developers, startups and industry leaders who want to integrate Yelp content,” said Chad Richard, SVP Business & Corporate Development at Yelp. “We have had over 1,000 developers involved in the Yelp Fusion public beta program. We can’t wait to see these new experiences roll out.”

Since launching Yelp’s first public API in 2007, tens of thousands of developers have built Yelp data and search into their applications. Yelp content has been used by thousands of startups and some of the largest companies in the world, including Apple, Twitter, Microsoft, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, for a broad array of products including augmented reality devices, in-car navigation, artificial intelligence, virtual assistants, transit, navigation, messaging, data visualization, local search, and even robotics.

Some of the companies announcing Yelp Fusion integrations today and in the coming weeks include SoundHound Inc.’s Hound and Houndify, Logitech’s ZeroTouch, Graphiq, Blippar, Bar Roulette, SoftBank’s Pepper robot, Thingthing, INRIX OpenCar, Coffee Meets Bagel, Eniro, Hiya, iValu8’s VivaSpot Wi-Fi, and Local Motors and IBM with the smart shuttle Olli.

"We know that picking the perfect first date spot is important, but challenging,” said Dawoon Kang, co-founder of Coffee Meets Bagel. “We immediately thought of working with Yelp because there is no other service that has such an extensive and nuanced understanding of local businesses. With the Yelp Fusion API we are able to query Yelp's database by rating, price, and business attributes like atmosphere and noise level and return the right recommendations for Coffee Meets Bagel singles, which is exciting."

In addition to technical improvements in Yelp’s API, the new Yelp Fusion developer program also focuses on greater support to developers both in the implementation phase and through education. As an example of this, Yelp is partnering with General Assembly to teach up-and-coming software developers how to integrate content and data sources from the Yelp Fusion API as part of their curriculum.

About Yelp

Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) connects people with great local businesses. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then, Yelp communities have taken root in major metros across 32 countries. By the end of Q2 2016, Yelpers had written approximately 108 million rich, local reviews, making Yelp the leading local guide for real word-of-mouth on everything from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists. Approximately 23 million unique devices accessed Yelp via the Yelp app, approximately 69 million unique visitors visited Yelp via mobile web and approximately 73 million unique visitors visited Yelp via desktop on a monthly average basis during the Q2 2016.