Yelp now letting users search with emoji icons

Why waste time typing to search for a restaurant when you can simply search using emoji icons?

A feature recently added to the Yelp mobile app allows users to search for local shops and restaurants by using emojis, cartoon icons that have grown in popularity in recent years.

Users can quickly find burger shops by searching with the burger icon, karaoke lounges with the microphone emoji, billiards bars with the 8-ball icon and much more.

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Yelp said the feature was created by a couple of engineers during a recent hackathon, which tech companies often hold to innovate new features for their services.

“We enjoyed it so much we wanted to share the fun with Yelpers,” a Yelp spokeswoman told The Times in an email.

The San Francisco company is the latest to jump on the emoji craze.

For April Fools’ Day, Google’s Chrome team made it possible for users to substitute words with emojis in articles written in English. Twitter also recently made it possible for users to be able to see emoji icons when accessing its service through the Web.

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