Street Fight Daily: A Deep Dive into the Yahoo-Google Partnership, Square’s IPO Struggles

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…

What Does Yahoo’s New Google Partnership Mean for SEO’s Future? (Search Engine Land)
Jayson DeMers: Though its brand likely will allow Google to remain the undisputed search champion for several more years, in terms of functionality, we’re heading toward an era where search results can be considered mostly platform-agnostic. Search engine optimization is no longer synonymous with “Google optimization.” What does that mean for your SEO strategy?

Square, Facing a Chilly Market, Persists in Pursuing IPO (New York Times)
Square is facing a market that is unenthusiastic about tech company IPOs. Investors are focused on profit, which Square does not have. Jack Dorsey is dividing his time in a way that may be a hard sell to those investors. Square knows it’s an uphill battle and has set its price per share in the $11 to $13 range, valuing it well below its most recent private market estimate of $6 billion.

#SFSNYC VIDEO: Smartphones Will Make the Connected Store a Reality (Street Fight)
Implementing technology in retail environments as a means of “saving” brick-and-mortar stores has been a consistent theme in recent years. But consumers have sent a clear message that the connected store can’t be about technology for technology’s sake. The increasingly central role of smartphones in the shopping process makes them the logical link between connected shoppers and connected stores.

Pinterest Sharpens Its Visual Search Skills (Wall Street Journal)
Pinterest is considered a social network akin to Facebook, but it would rather be more like Google. The company plans to introduce technology to let users search its site without using text. The new tool would allow a user who, for example, admires a light fixture to highlight it, and then see pictures of other similar fixtures. Pinterest says this is a step toward a new type of visual search engine that it calls “a discovery engine.” (Subscription required)

Franchises Make Scale Profitable for TAPinto.net’s Two-State Network (Street Fight)
TAPinto.net has taken its New Jersey-centered franchise model for community news to adjacent and competitive counties in New York’s heavily suburban Lower Hudson Valley. In this Q&A, founder and CEO Mike Shapiro explains how he’s been able to scale his seven-year-old community network through franchising, largely through self-financing.

Postmates CEO Says He’s Raising Money Again in January to Build the ‘Anti-Amazon’ (Forbes)
Ask Bastian Lehmann, the CEO of delivery startup Postmates, what company he’s gunning for, and you might be surprised: “We’re building the anti-Amazon.” But in order for Postmates to pose a legitimate threat to the ecommerce giant, it will need more capital.

Delivery Start-Up DoorDash Infuriates Some Restaurateurs by Working Around Them (Eater)
DoorDash is listing the menus and logos of some restaurants on its service in New York without the owners’ permission — and charging both a delivery fee and higher prices. Some restaurants say they don’t mind being on the site, but others are upset and feel that DoorDash has been messing with their business.

Chime, An App for Booking Babysitters (New York Times)
Chime, an app that provides a platform for harried parents to book babysitters, has been released in four cities. The app is a subsidiary of a larger child-care service company called SitterCity and promises a special rigor in vetting its babysitters.

Why Early Holiday Shopping on Mobile May Hurt Black Friday Sales (Adweek)
Mobile shopping could already be cutting into brick-and-mortar retailers’ holiday sales, according to Facebook research, especially considering that more than half of the consumers polled by Facebook will shop across mobile, desktop, and physical stores this holiday season.

Google’s European Negotiating Tactic: Convince the EU That Amazon Is Crushing It (Recode)
Google’s retort to the EU’s antitrust charges is mounted with legal points claiming that regulators cannot make the company change its core software. But the more foundational argument from Google is that other companies — chiefly, Amazon — are thriving despite, or because of, its products.

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