Are you interested in doing business with a retailer that accepts bitcoin as a method of payment? Well, instead of doing an extensive web search, visitors can now simply visit Yelp and it will inform them if the merchant does in fact accept bitcoins or not.
Yelp officially announced the newest addition in a blog post Monday. The San Francisco, California-based website has placed the bitcoin information on the right-hand side of the screen where other forms of payments are listed.
“We’re constantly thinking about how to make our business attributes more useful for consumers and businesses,” Yelp wrote in a blog post. “That’s why we’re excited to announce that as of today, we’re adding a new attribute: ‘Accepts Bitcoin: Yes.'”
If businesses want to take full advantage of the latest function then they will be required to update their visible Yelp profiles on biz.yelp.com.
Yelp added in its statement that this is an important addition because bitcoin is the latest payment technology that is changing the way both businesses and consumers are doing business by offering affordable, secure and fast transactions.
“Bitcoin also allows for consumers and businesses to transact without having to store sensitive data like a credit card number. Finally, like cash, Bitcoin’s transactions are one-way, so businesses don’t have to worry about chargebacks,” Yelp stated. “We’re hopeful the introduction of the Bitcoin attribute will provide yet another way for consumers to connect with great local businesses.”
CoinDesk noted in a report that there have been rumors circulating around the Internet dating back to earlier this month that the review website had been working on adding the new feature for a little while.
Yelp has experienced its own share of controversies over the years.
Yelp has been accused of manipulating its website’s user reviews based on participation in its advertising schemes.
Also, a study last year discovered that fake Yelp reviews, whether they were good or bad, jumped to 20 percent from five percent in eight years ago. There have been services that sell Yelp reviews.
With this negative press, the company has been trying to repair its brand and improve its public relations.
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This isn’t the first time that a business directory has made a list of companies accepting bitcoin. AirBitz is a website dedicated to bitcoin that allows visitors to locate places that are friendly to bitcoin. Its Bitcoin Business Directory offers advanced search abilities, alerts of new businesses in your vicinity using bitcoin and a list updated each day.
In addition, it soon will maintain a bitcoin wallet application with financial tracking capabilities, cloud backups and local client side encryption.
Airbitz currently has more than 1,500 listings in 34 states and provinces, including Alaska, Ohio, Minnesota, New Mexico and Quebec (Canada).
Another website that highlights bitcoin businesses is Coinmap.org, an international directory that aids bitcoin users in finding retailers that accept bitcoins as well as litecoins. It made headlines this month when it exceeded 4,100 merchants worldwide.