Just ask Echo where to find the best fish restaurant and the results should pop up on the Alexa app situated on your smartphone or tablet. “To get started, go to Settings in the Alexa App, select your device, and add your address”, reads a post from Amazon.
Advertisement
Regarding the implications of Echo’s Yelp integration, Mashable puts forth a theory that MPD CEO Karen Webster has previously recommended as a wise move for Amazon: the eCommerce giant may be getting closer to outright acquiring the local business search platform.
Amazon’s Echo device has been pretty popular among users and Amazon is in no mood to stop making it more awesome than it already is: Amazon is now going to incorporate Yelp’s search results in Echo.
Amazon also recently added sleep timers to the Echo, in case you want the device to slowly fade down a particular song or podcast. In addition to spoken results from Alexa, you’ll also be able to pull up more detailed business details (and a link to Yelp) from the Alexa app, according to Amazon.
If you’re not the sort of person creeped out by voice control permeating our everyday lives, then you’ll be pleased to hear that Amazon’s Echo assistant is now integrated with Yelp recommendations. A pairing with Yelp would not only sharpen Amazon’s local consumer focus, but it might also help the company solve that pesky problem of how to deal with fake reviews, an issue that Yelp seems to have handled with a few success.
Advertisement
However, all such theories, the outlet notes, may be all for naught, if recent reports (such as one from The Street) that Yelp is no longer for sale are to be believed. However, you first have to let the Echo know which teams you care about, configurable via the Alexa app.
