Street Fight Daily: 06.17.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.

eBay is beefing up its mobile arsenal with its first local shopping app, powered by the local shopping search engine that eBay acquired in June, Milo. Through partnerships with more than 140 retailers, Milo has access to real-time information from the inventory management systems of about 50,000 stores. (Mashable)

AOL chief Tim Armstrong said yesterday that “certain” Patch outlets — there are 800 and counting — should be profitable by Q3 or Q4, though he didn’t offer specifics. (Paid Content)

Rocky Agarwal received a couple of emails from a former Groupon employee that shed some light on the sales culture at the company. Among key points were the idea that some reps only care about commissions and don’t cap the number of deals that can sold, and that last minute changes to deals are common. (TechCrunch)

Google is planning to launch Offers in New York and San Francisco sometime in July, and someone was kind enough to send on the briefing flyer that Google is sending to merchants in these markets to butter them up. (Business Insider)

“What Groupon has done is more impressive than it may seem: attribution,” writes Mike Butcher. “The biggest advance that Groupon has made is that it makes an online recommendation of an offline venue (a place). This again in itself is not new; tracking the success of that recommendation is.” (TechCrunch)

The Middle East is probably the most underrated growth market on the planet right now: Over 350M people with 70% under the age of 30. Groupon recently established an operation in the region but according to data for the last month they’re being crushed by Cobone.com, the local competitor. (Dylan Collins)

Yatown, the hyperlocal social network, has announced that it will give special access to all members of specific communities throughout the U.S. This means that if you’re a lucky resident of a chosen neighborhood, you can access the social network’s content on a read-only basis for a limited time without signing up for an account. (Scribbal)

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