Street Fight Daily: 07.18.11

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

Yelp now has over 20 million reviews, up from 10 million in March, 2010 (and 17 million in April). The reviews bring in the visitors, and visitor growth tracks pretty closely with the growth in reviews. Yelp hit 53 million visitors in June, according to its own stats.  (TechCrunch)

Connecticut law-enforcement officials are looking into whether Groupon is breaking consumer-protection laws that prohibit gift cards from expiring. (Wall Street Journal)

Zappedy, a company that offered various technology products for local businesses, has been acquired by Groupon. Zappedy seemingly enabled small local businesses to easily create a Web site and advertise online through social media and daily deal websites simply by sending emails. Groupon likely acquired the company for its team but possibly also for the technology. (TechCrunch)

Hearst-owned magazines are treading on Groupon’s territory with the launch of group-buying discounts, starting off with Road & Track and Car and Driver. Hearst will be using a platform built for big media publishers by Group Commerce. (AllThingsDigital)

BuyWithMe, a daily deals service, has just announced the acquisition of Edhance, a company that provides card-linked loyalty programs to merchants. (VentureBeat)

What if Groupon is intentionally overvaluing its IPO in order to set up one of the biggest events in stock market history? Could Groupon issue a Groupon for its common stock? Daily Deal Media)

Foursquare has added a new newsfeed-like system for notifications to its iPhone app. The new “notification tray” tracks checkins, comments on your checkins, new comments on items you’ve commented on, completion of your tips by your friends and mayor status updates. (Mashable)

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