Online communication delightfully devolved with the advent of the Emoji, also known as those weird poop-with-eyes and thumbs up icons your teenaged cousin texts to describe his bathroom adventures. Now the Emoji has crossed into a different communication medium, with the announcement that Yelp now allows users to search its database by entering just a single Emoji. Searching for Cat With Heart Eyes businesses has never been easier.
Most of the NYC searches are pretty straightforward. Use the pig Emoji and you'll get results with "pig" in the business name; use the beer mug Emoji and it'll recommend good places to get a pint. Searches with the snowman Emoji are more inscrutable, including Jacques Torres Chocolate—snowman candy?—and some kind of events space. As for that poop Emoji? Dog walking services and an American (New) establishment called Poop in Jersey City (natch) that looks to be a gag entry. For further reading, The Date Report claims to have used the emojis to "uncover the hidden meaning" behind NYC hotspots.
It doesn't seem all that much easier to click through to your Emoji keyboard and find a corresponding character for what you're seeking than it does to, say, type the word "haircut." But if nothing else it's interesting to see how Yelp has classified certain Emojis, like the Sunglasses Smiley ("cool" places like Sake Bar Decibel and PDT); wad of cash with wings (expensive spots like Il Mulino and Del Frisco's); and hourglass (long waits at Shake Shack!).
Without the cable car Emoji we may never have discovered the "Metro Transportation Authority" Yelp page, which boasts an impressive 3.5 star average. Good job, Teddy! You beat the PATH.
