Yelp to add sanitation scores to restaurant reviews

There are some pretty compelling reasons to not use Yelp, especially considering that the reviews are blatantly manipulated by both the businesses being reviewed and according to allegations, Yelp itself.

Yelp

But now there’s an extra reason to consider avoiding the site: They’re adding what score your restaurant got from the Health Department.

It’s part of a program, developed by Yelp with the encouragement of the White House, called Local Inspector Value-entry Specification, or LIVES. The idea is that municipalities, started with New York and San Francisco, can enter a restaurant’s sanitation score as a value on its Yelp page.

Granted, this is a public service and we do have a right to know, but, let’s be honest here: Do you want to know? You’ve always known, deep in your heart, that the skanky Chinese food place around the corner is probably barely squeaking by under the law. You know every McDonald’s is essentially a foul abbatoir of germs. Do you really want confirmation?

LIVES is limited to New York and San Francisco for now, but will be rolling out to more cities in the coming year.

Introducing LIVES [Yelp]