Ifbyphone Mashup With Yelp: Get Reviews Over The Phone!

Simplicity. That’s one of the key tenets at Ifbyphone. We enable our customers to use phones to get more value out of their business without a lot of fuss. That’s one reason we keep rolling out new applications (Conference Calling, Store Locator, Virtual Call Center and more on the way). Customers can have these applications live within a few minutes after signing up for an account.

We provide even more value by letting our customers develop their own applications using our developer API. And even our API is simple. We use HTTP based communication. This means you can capitalize by having your developers write code in a language they already know. Simple, and cost effective.

So in that vein, Phil, one of our Sales Engineers, found some time between helping customers and admiring rainbows to write a mashup with Yelp, the popular review site. It took him about a half hour and 20 lines of code. What the mashup does is allow you to call a Toll Free number (866.596.8333), and enter the 10 digit telephone number of the place you want information on. We will check the Yelp database and tell you the total number of reviews as well as the average review.

Check it out…call 866.596.8333 and enter in the phone number for your favorite restaurant. This will work with any review in the Yelp database. If you don’t have a phone number handy, here are some of my favorite places to eat:

Flat Top Grill (Chicago, IL): 312.829.4800 – great make your own stir fry

Buffalo Wild Wings (Skokie, IL): 847.329.9333 – wings…mmm…

Pizza VIlla (DeKalb, IL): 815.758.8116 – the best pizza on earth

Real Chili (Milwaukee, IL): 414.271.4042 – the best chili on earth

Twin Anchors (Chicago, IL): 312.266.1616 – best ribs in Chicago

Keep the number – you never know when you’re out and about and want to know if a place is any good.

We’re already thinking of new features for this little mashup. If you’re interested in developing your own mashups, click here to call me. If you would like to suggest more mashups or features for the Yelp mashup, leave a comment.