Street Fight Daily: Apple Expands iBeacon, The Hack That Saved Foursuare
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.
Apple Launching iBeacons To Guide Store Visitors (Associated Press)
On Friday, Apple began using the iBeacon technology at its 254 U.S. stores to send you messages about products, events and other information – tailored to where you are inside, provided you have downloaded the Apple Store app and have given it permission to send notices based on your location. With iBeacon, Apple hopes to guide you around once you’re inside, whether it’s to pick up an order, upgrade to a new iPhone or shop for a pair of headphones.
Yext’s New ‘Pages’ and the Future of One-Stop Solutions for Small Businesses (Street Fight)
Sean Barkulis: The first large-scale technology company that can service small businesses in all of the following four industries will have the best opportunity to be the next leading hyperlocal superstar: 1) Website building, 2) email/loyalty marketing, 3) hyperlocal technology and 4) Online advertising, promotion and deal solutions.
The Brilliant Hack That Brought Foursquare Back From the Dead (Wired)
Dennis Crowley always envisioned Foursquare as a fellow traveler, dispensing relevant information unbidden — alerting you to tucked-away bars as you strolled a neighborhood, sale items as you entered a boutique, or popular appetizers as you sat down for dinner at a new restaurant. After 13 years of trying, Crowley has cracked the problem, thanks to a wonderfully clever data hack from two big thinkers on the payroll: lead engineer Anoop Ranganth and data scientist Blake Shaw.
6 Strategies For Helping SMBs Understand the Importance of Mobile (Street Fight)
According to a Manta survey, 67% of small business owners don’t expect mobile to impact them this holiday season. Only 8% of the 1,003 SMBs surveyed said they expect mobile to drive shoppers to their brick-and-mortar locations. This presents a challenge for hyperlocal vendors looking to sell their mobile products and services, however it’s something that can be overcome through a combination of education and original thinking.
Twitter’s Dorsey Vies With SoftBank’s Son for Japan Shops (Bloomberg)
Japan’s second-richest man cut charges by 35 percent to defend his turf in the world’s No. 3 economy, where fat fees and neglect by big financial firms deter small businesses from taking cards and mean a growth opportunity for low-cost, easy-to-use services. Japan’s consumers shelled out $1.5 trillion in cash for their purchases in the year through March 2012, using plastic at about half the rate of American shoppers.
When Trying To Find Innovation, Look For The Intersection Of The Physical And Digital Worlds (GigaOm)
Saul Berman: Today, the distinction between physical and digital is becoming a thing of the past. Today’s innovation is taking place at the very intersection of the digital and physical worlds. And it’s happening all around us, often led by chief marketing officers looking for new ways to differentiate their offerings.
On Mobile, The Location Arrow May Finally Be Pointed In The Right Direction (TechCrunch)
We will have to wait and see how app makers and the market responds, but with better battery optimization techniques, better location APIs, and a potential divide between early-adopter techies and the normal consumer, who may not care to manage settings or know how to, the stage may be set. That once-dreaded location arrow in the top-right status bar, whether full or greyed out, may quite well be a thing of the past.
Bing Brings Enhanced Mapping To Windows 8.1 (SearchEngineLand)
Microsoft has announced “Bing Maps Preview” for Windows 8.1, the new mapping app that offers a range of enhanced features and capabilities. Google Earth and what used to be called Microsoft Virtual Earth have always been a bit slow and clunky as daily mapping and local search tools. Now with Bing Maps Preview Microsoft is trying to merge the daily, mundane world of local search with the more imaginative and leisure uses of 3D mapping (virtual sightseeing, travel planning).
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