Amazon's Virtual Assistant Will Give Restaurant Recommendations Based on Yelp Reviews

All you have to do is ask.

It's getting more and more difficult to escape Yelp reviews, and they are now being integrated into new technology. According to Slash Gear, the latest update to Amazon's virtual assistant system Echo pulls Yelp recommendations for restaurants, as well as other business. All users have to do is ask Alexa, the personification of Amazon's Echo system, where the nearest Chinese restaurant is and Alexa will respond with an answer.

The system will also send Yelp-powered recommendations to a phone or tablet. Alexa can offer details beyond a restaurant name, such as the star rating and the phone number. The system can also tell you if a restaurant is still open or when it closes if that information is available on Yelp. The feature only works, however, if location information has been input into the Echo app, otherwise Alexa cannot gauge a user's location.

The update also offers more than Yelp recommendations. It can help users order halloween candy by voice alone. Engadget writes that users just have to ask the speaker to "order Halloween candy" and it will, provided the user has enabled voice purchasing.

Amazon is just the latest company to integrate Yelp into its virtual assistant program. In 2012, Apple integrated the review site into Siri, the company's personal assistant technology. If users have the Yelp app on their phone, Siri will pull up Yelp-based answers for questions on topics such as where to find the nearest coffee shop. Android phones, on the other hand, sources its restaurant recommendations from Google-owned ratings site Zagat.

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