Street Fight Daily: Apple Vets Waze, Yelp Lawsuit Overturned
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.
Is Apple Plotting a Route to a Waze Acquisition? Rumours on the Road Point to Yes (TechCrunch)
It comes as almost no surprise to us that there are rumors flying around that Apple is sniffing around Waze with a view to a possible acquisition. Waze is already a data partner for Apple’s Maps app and was the only app to gain meaningful marketshare after the Apple Maps fail.
‘Indie’ Publishers Are Ready to Start Roaring (Street Fight)
Tom Grubisich: The Local Independent Online News Publishers association is still in the cub stage, but it’s getting ready to roar. There’s a 11-member board of directors, a sense of mission that’s powered by what looks like a strong start in networking and, not least, funding from the Patterson Foundation that will encourage LION’s growth by subsidizing membership dues.
Judge Can’t Order Yelp User to Edit Negative Review (Ars Technica)
The Virginia Supreme Court has overturned a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit over a Virginia woman’s negative online review of a local contractor. The defendant’s attorneys say that the case marks an important ruling in preserving free speech rights online—judges shouldn’t be able to edit or halt speech before a legal case has run its course.
4 Hyperlocal Trends to Watch in 2013 (Street Fight)
Pat Kitano: 2012’s rush to capture the hyperlocal audience has begun to wane as the reality sets in that while the online SMB market is huge and untapped, it remains hard to get those mom-and-pops to spend money on newfangled marketing methods. Last year’s intense startup activity has revealed four trends going into 2013.
eBay Tries Two New Ways to Sell: Drop-Off Points and Home Pick-Up (AllThingsD)
eBay is piloting a program where it offers to send an employee to a consumers’ home to pick up items and deliver them to an expert, who would attempt to sell them — for a cut of the proceeds. The program is one of several pilots that eBay is experimenting with as it tries to figure out ways to connect with consumers locally by having a physical presence, rather than conducting everything anonymously over the Internet.
Newspaper Daily Deals a Mixed Bag for Publishers (The News Hook)
As newspapers struggle to attract new readers and adopt new revenue streams, some are emulating daily deal sites like Groupon or LivingSocial and selling their own deals. Given the headwinds facing daily deals companies, have newspapers arrived too late to a losing game, or do their strong advertiser relationships give them a leg up on Silicon Valley.
Bartenders Get Your Foursquare Dossier (Wired)
The mobile check-in service has quietly updated its privacy policy to say the company will share your history of visits with any merchant you check in to, allowing everyone from your local baker to your neighborhood dive bar to your favorite national pharmacy chain to see just how often you’ve been visiting their venue in recent days, months, or possibly years.
Survey: Despite Initial Missteps, Mobile Payments Will Boom in 2013 (GigaOm)
We’ve heard it before: So-and-so year will be the year of the mobile payments. A group of mobile industry experts, however, believes 2013 will be the real deal. Google and the carriers had their chance. Now it’s the banks’ turn.
Was 2012 the Year of the Prosperous Publisher? What We Know Now (Journalism Accelerator)
Emily Harris: As 2012 drew to a close, we turned to a handful of insightful people in the news production mix, asking each to share what he or she learned over the course of this chapter in the evolving story of journalism. We also asked a number of other leaders across the industry to share what they learned in 2012.
Fix Local News or Die (Media, Disrupted)
John L. Robinson: Newsrooms tend to operate as if they still are the newspaper of record. Stop it. Rather than a grocery store, the paper should be more like one of those specialty shops with fewer choices but only the finest items that you’re not going to find elsewhere.
What Marketers Need To Know About Facebook Nearby (AllFacebook)
Jamie Tedford: Nearby is big news for local businesses, hotels, restaurants, etc, but some global retail brands might be wondering exactly what it means for them now, and in the future. We’ve been able to glean some preliminary insights into how using Facebook’s local features can drive “butts in seats,” “heads in beds,” “turning turnstiles” and “ringing registers” for businesses large and small.
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