SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 19 (UPI) — Crowd-source reviewing website Yelp announced Tuesday that it reached an agreement with the federal government that will allow users to rate federal agencies.
Yelpers, as the website’s users are called, will now be able to review “thousands of agency field offices, TSA checkpoints, national parks, Social Security Administration offices, landmarks” and more. The company’s blog post said the government is clearly “eager to engage with people directly through social media,” and that the company is excited to help them do so.
Non-government services like restaurants and bars have been able to claim a page as their business on Yelp. Now, federal agencies will be able to do the same. The subtle omission of a “Work here? Claim this business” directive will indicate to Yelpers that a review page for a federal agency has been claimed.
For example, a reviewer named Jim P. had the following to say about the TSA checkpoint at the Miami International Airport (MIA).
The absolute worst in the absolute worst major American airport. Yuck, leaves you frustrated, angry and never, ever wanting to fly through Miami again. Yelp, you need negative stars for some reviews and this would be one.
The news accompanies Yelp’s recent announcement that it had teamed up with ProPublica to “incorporate health care statistics and consumer opinion survey data” onto the review pages of medical treatment facilities. Restaurants’ transparency will also be expanded through a partnership with the LIVES open data standard to show restaurant health scores.
All of these things fall under Yelp’s Consumer Protection Initiative, a concerted effort to empower and protect consumers on our site.
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