Yelp Business
Review Collector

Requirements

The collector runs entirely in your browser as a Chrome extension. No server account, API key, or external service is required. Before installing, make sure your environment meets the following:

• Browser: Google Chrome version 120 or later. Other Chromium-based browsers (Edge, Brave, Whale) typically work but are not formally tested.
• Operating System: Windows 10/11, macOS 12+, or any recent Linux distribution.
• Disk space: Less than 5 MB for the extension itself; collected data is exported as CSV/Excel/JSON files.
• Network: A stable internet connection to load Yelp business pages during collection.

Download

Download the latest packaged extension. The file is a standard ZIP archive containing the extension's manifest, scripts, and assets.

Installation

Because this extension is distributed for research use rather than through the Chrome Web Store, it is loaded as an unpacked extension. The process is the same on all platforms.

1. Open Chrome's extensions page

   In your address bar, type chrome://extensions and press Enter.

2. Enable Developer mode

   In the top-right corner, toggle the Developer mode switch on.

3. Load the unpacked extension

   Click Load unpacked, then navigate to and select the folder where you unzipped the collector. Chrome should now show "Yelp Business Review Collector" as an installed extension.

4. Pin the extension (optional but recommended)

   Click the puzzle-piece icon in Chrome's toolbar, find the collector, and click the pin icon for quick access.

How to use

Step-by-step collection

1. Open a Yelp business page. The URL pattern is:
   https://www.yelp.com/biz/[business-slug]
   Examples:
   • blue-bottle-coffee-san-francisco
   • the-french-laundry-yountville
2. Click the collector's icon in your Chrome toolbar a panel appears top-right.
3. The panel will detect the business automatically. Click Refresh if needed.
4. Choose your stop condition:
   • Collect all reviews all available recommended reviews
   • Stop after N reviews hard cap (e.g., 200)
   • Stop at time cutoff e.g., last 6 months
   • Current page only just the visible page (no extra fetches)
5. (Optional) Tick Anonymize author names.
6. Click Start Collection. The extension fetches review pages with 1.5-3 second random delays.
7. When complete, click CSV / Excel / JSON to download.

Collection tips

• Sort by Newest. If using time cutoff filtering, set Yelp's review sort to "Newest First" before starting.
• Recommended Reviews only. Yelp filters out some reviews into a "Not Recommended" section this extension only collects from the main "Recommended Reviews" list.
• 1000-review limit. Yelp typically caps visible reviews at around 1000 per business older reviews become unavailable.
• Bot protection. Yelp has aggressive bot detection. If blocked, wait 10-20 minutes or solve any CAPTCHA in your browser.

Output format

Each collection produces a single file (CSV, XLS, or JSON) with one row per review and the following 16 columns:

• review_id unique identifier
• business_name business name from Yelp
• author_name reviewer name (or anonymized hash)
• author_location reviewer's city/region
• author_friends number of Yelp friends
• author_review_count total reviews this user has written
• author_photo_count total photos this user has uploaded
• rating 1-5 stars
• date_text original date string ("Oct 7, 2024")
• date_iso parsed ISO date (2024-10-07)
• content review body text
• review_language detected language
• helpful_useful "Useful" reaction count
• helpful_funny "Funny" reaction count
• helpful_cool "Cool" reaction count
• photo_count photos in this specific review

The file is ready to import into R, Python, SPSS, or any tool that reads CSV/Excel.

Troubleshooting

"Blocked by Yelp's protection"

Yelp has aggressive bot detection. Solutions:

• Solve any CAPTCHA by visiting yelp.com directly in your browser
• Wait 10-20 minutes before retrying
• Use Current page only mode to avoid pagination requests
• Make sure you are signed in to Yelp (less likely to be blocked)

Reviews not detected

Yelp changes their HTML frequently. Click Refresh in the panel after the page loads. Make sure you are on a /biz/[name] URL, not a search results page.

Some fields are empty

Yelp displays different metadata for different users. Older reviews may have less data. Helpful counts (Useful/Funny/Cool) sometimes require page interaction to show.

Date parsing failed

Check the date_text column for the original format. Yelp uses either "Oct 7, 2024" or "10/7/2024" both should work. Localized dates may not parse.

Citation

If you use this tool in research that leads to publication, please cite the project. A formal citation entry will be added once the accompanying methodological paper is published. For now, you may reference the tool as:

This extension is provided for academic research purposes. Users are responsible for complying with Yelp's Terms of Service, respecting reviewer privacy, and following their institution's research ethics guidelines. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Yelp Inc.

Questions or feedback? Contact the lab via the addresses listed on the main site.