Street Fight Daily: Square Gets a Pass, Yelp Reviewer Sued
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.
Square Slides Into Apple’s Passbook With Digital Gift Cards (AllThingsD)
Square, the digital payments company known mostly for its square-shaped, credit card-processing gadget, has rolled out digital gift cards that can be exchanged between both Square and non-Square users. The cards can be presented and redeemed in a variety of ways, including through Apple’s Passbook app — Square’s first integration with Apple’s new digital wallet.
Yelp Reviewer Gets SLAPPed With 750K Lawsuit and Order to Alter Comments (TechCrunch)
A woman is facing a $750,000 defamation lawsuit and has been ordered to alter a negative Yelp review of a home contractor after police found that her claims didn’t add up. Yelp and legal critics are worried that Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP)-related lawsuits could chill free speech, but business owners say that legal intervention is necessary in an age when online reviews can make or break a company.
Location-Based Search Revenue Will Reach $6B by 2017 (Mobile Marketer)
With a growing focus on context and relevancy, local search is expected to play an increased role for mobile marketers in the next five years, according to a new study from Strategy Analytics. The research firm forecasts that Location-based search revenue will reach $6 billion by 2017 – 20 percent of total projected mobile advertising revenue.
Showrooming is Real, Best Buy is the Big Loser, and Amazon is Eating Everyone’s Lunch (Pando Daily)
A recent poll conducted by Harris Interactive illustrates the impact that so-called “showrooming,” or visiting a brick and mortar store to examine a product before purchasing it elsewhere online, is having on physical retailers. It seems you aren’t the only one ruthlessly checking prices and rewarding etailers – primarily Amazon, which has subsisted on razor-thin margins for its entire 17-year-lifespan – for lower prices.
Race On for Taxi Apps (The Wall Street Journal)
By early next year, hailing a yellow cab in New York City could be as easy as whipping out a smartphone and pressing a button. The Taxi and Limousine Commission is expected to vote Thursday on rules that would allow the use of smartphone applications for hailing and paying for cab rides for the first time. But representatives for other for-hire vehicles have mounted a fierce behind-the-scenes lobbying effort to block them.
Discover Follows in AmEx’s Footsteps With New Apple Passbook Integration (TechCrunch)
Following AmEx’s support for Passbook earlier in the year, Discover Card this week also added Passbook integration to its mobile app in order to connect users with their card rewards. Instead of focusing on account info and alerts, Discover’s Passbook integration, a new feature in the latest version of its iOS application, offers cardholders access to their credit card cashback rewards in the form of eCertificates.
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