Inspiration
Not everyone has a smart phone, or can afford the data required to use apps without WiFi. Yelp 3G is a portal for these people, harnessing the power of Yelp search and discovery through the medium of text messaging.
What it does
Sign up with a phone number. Text your new concierge a search term, ie "hot wings" or "pho bo." Yelp 3G executes the search leveraging the Yelp API, parses the results, and sends back to the user via SMS.
The user can then request additional details about a specific business result, which performs another Yelp API callback and yields contact and location information about the business.
How I built it
Yelp API, the official Yelp Ruby wrapper, Rails, and Twilio.
Challenges I ran into
Because HTTP is stateless and there are no usernames, passwords, or browser cookies to manipulate, the app needed a novel way to recognize user's and maintain a stateful interaction experience even if the user behaviors are inconsistent.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
It's always difficult deciding where you should eat with friends. If only there was someone else -- a 3rd party -- that could "decide" for you... Cue Yelp 3G Random.
Simply text "random" (case insensitive) at any time and Yelp 3G will combine a myriad of cuisines, price ranges, and characteristics (quiet, spicy, etc) to create a one-of-a-kind search. You'll then be "fed" (get it?!) results without any extra effort from the user.
What I learned
Yelp's API is easymode, Twilio routing is awesome.
What's next for Yelp 3G
Ability for user to update their zip code on-the-go, request more than 3 search results, and additional error handling.
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