Yesterday Yelp rolled out a new feature for advertisers – the option to include video on business pages. The addition of video is great for businesses, as it gives them a new vehicle for attracting customers, apart from the traditional pictures and text. This new feature is also fantastic for Yelp, as it sets them apart from competing review sites that have not yet implemented video features.

Yelp announced the new video option yesterday on their company blog. They point out the fact that video is a really great way to help yelpers (i.e. potential customers) “get a sense of a business’s ambiance, personalities and specialties in a very short time”. I could not agree more. With the rise of television and Web video, humans in general are becoming much more visual. We would rather watch a video than read a block of text. Yelp’s new video option gives businesses the opportunity to appeal to potential customers on Yelp with an entertaining and informative video clip, rather than only relying on yelpers to read text and reviews.

According to Yelp’s blog, hundreds of advertisers have already jumped on the video bandwagon, including PR Motorsports, Strings, Cole Hardware, Fine Arts Giclee & Frame, Genki Ya, and Dr. Jarrod Cornehl DDS. You can watch their videos by clicking on the video icon, which is displayed at the beginning of each page’s picture slideshow. One of the most colorful examples of how a company can use video to show off their personality on Yelp comes from Let It Ride Design in San Diego.

Yelp’s primary competitors, including Insider Pages, Yahoo! Local, and Google Local business reviews on Google Maps do not provide businesses with the option to upload videos at this time, giving Yelp businesses the leg up. However, the option to add video to your business page seems like such a great opportunity that I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing this option on other major review sites on the Web. As the web surfing community becomes more attuned to getting their information in video format, I believe that the video medium will become an imperative part of reviews and advertising across the Internet.

What do you think about Yelp’s new video feature? Do you think it sets Yelp apart from other review sites on the web?