In what has been a great week for the reviews and recommendations service, Yelp has cemented its relationship with first Apple and now Microsoft as Bing incorporates Yelp data into its local search.
From today, changes will be rolled out to Bing search results that will see reviews, photos and business details from Yelp incorporated into relevant results, accompanied by a ‘Powered by Yelp’ logo.
This follows Apple’s announcement at the beginning of the week that Yelp will have an important role to play in iOS 6. Business listings and reviews from Yelp will be used to enhance both Siri and Apple’s new 3D-mapping service – an innovation that saw them dropping Google Maps a direct competitor instead.
Google is the search giant to contend with, and, recently, Google+ Local began incorporating Zagat ratings into its results.
Bing underwent a full-on social makeover last month, integrating Facebook and Twitter and partnering with services like OpenTable, which lets users book a reservation right there in the search results. This latest Yelp add-on will assist Microsoft in competing with Google’s Zagat-powered results.
So far only planned for the US, the changes are expected to be fully rolled out there in the next few weeks.
