Yelp's Newest Feature Adds Videos To Your Restaurant Reviews

When you're looking for a local place to grab a meal, Yelp thinks a 3- to 12-second video could be an important factor in your decision. In a July 28 blog post, the restaurant reviews startup wrote that it has added a feature that lets users beef up their reviews with a short video.

The videos aren't supposed to be full reviews, but rather short glimpses into what an establishment has to offer in terms of atmosphere, food, and ambiance.

Yelp's blog compares it to the photos it already allows users to upload to reviews. Businesses with photos draw in eyeballs for more than twice as long as businesses without them, so it seems Yelp is looking for videos to have a similar effect.

Debuting on iPhone first and Android at a later date, Yelp previewed what it envisions for the feature on the blog. Clips of bands playing and tableside food prep appear in the post, hosted using the video cloud storage service Brightcove.

"It will be a reward for businesses that go to great lengths to achieve a certain ambiance," Yelp mobile product manager Madhu Prabaker told Business Insider in May. "Whether by having a certain lighting or the music at just the right level."