Yext, Inc. (NYSE: YEXT), the Search Experience Cloud company, today announced the availability of its Fall '20 Release for general access.
The release introduces several enhancements to the Yext platform, including the latest algorithm update "Andromeda" and a milestone language expansion into Japanese for Yext Answers, the company's revolutionary site search product. Additional upgrades include more options for implementing Answers, organizing information in the Yext Knowledge Graph (a brain-like database of structured facts about a business), and viewing customer suggestions to business facts from Bing.
"If brands aren't digital-first, they'll easily fall behind and let their customers down in this unpredictable, rapidly changing environment," said Marc Ferrentino, Chief Strategy Officer of Yext. "Our Fall '20 Release is all about helping businesses and organizations have a best-in-class digital experience with new tools and features that let them be more nimble and, in turn, more reliable."
The Fall '20 Release includes the following features:
Andromeda: Yext's new Andromeda algorithm update makes it possible for businesses to deploy an Answers site search experience in Japanese, with the ability to understand complex queries in the three Japanese character sets (kanji, hiragana, and katakana) and location-based searches. Andromeda also introduces features like Semantic Text Search, which makes it easier to surface the most relevant FAQ based on the intent behind a query, rather than a keyword or synonym.
New implementation options: Businesses leveraging Yext Answers can already embed the search bar directly on their website. Now, with a new overlay option, brands can also choose to add a prompt button to the corner of their website that expands into an Answers experience when clicked. Additionally, a new plugin allows WordPress users to seamlessly integrate Answers on their websites built on the WordPress platform.
Custom sections: When organizing information in the Yext Knowledge Graph, brands can now reorder and group the fields on entities based on their preferences. This includes, for example, having a venue name appear before the date and time of an event, or uniting venue name, address, latitude, and longitude fields under one location-themed group.
Bing Suggestions: Consumers are often a brand's eyes and ears on the ground, pointing out any inaccuracies about their digital information like hours of operation or addresses in online listings. Now, alongside consumer-suggested edits from Google and Facebook, businesses can also see and act on suggestions from Bing in the Yext platform if they are located in the United States.