Every two weeks, Search Influence’s Kelly Benish — who knows practically everyone in hyperlocal — covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week's edition, new hires and jobs at Hulu, Company Town, Angie's List, Factual, Search Influence, and Facebook...

A new study from BIA/Kelsey finds that mobile advertising revenues may be picking up at a faster clip than previously thought. In the U.S. Local Media Forecast, the research firm projects that mobile ad spending in the U.S. will rise from $7.22 billion in 2013 to $25.47 billion in 2017, a 20% increase from what the company projected last year. Meanwhile, the share of mobile ad spending spent on locally-targeted ads continues to grow as well — albeit at slightly slower rate than previously expected...

Brand marketers have started to catch up with consumers on mobile, but small businesses still remain far behind — and it may be starting to affect their bottom line. A new study finds that consumers are increasingly turning to their mobile devices to search for local businesses when they are ready to buy, but the information they want is often inaccurate, incomplete, or non-existent.

Closely, the maker of Perch, a social analytics app for small businesses, has raised $3 million in a series A round of funding led by Grotech ventures. Amid a chaotic local marketing industry, the company has quietly built out a novel business model which draws on learnings from the consumer world to solve one of the most dire problems in the business technology industry: selling to small businesses...

In the war to win the digital consumer, Walmart is betting that an all-of-the-above strategy will win out. During a speech at AdAge Digital in New York Tuesday, Brian Monahan, vice president of marketing at Walmart.com, said that world’s largest retailer remained committed to its brick-and-mortar stores and is focused on using technology to bridge the company's digital and physical assets...

Three months after selling its Korean deals business TicketMonster to Groupon, LivingSocial has divested the remainder of its assets in Southeast Asia. The company announced Tuesday afternoon that it has sold the its assets in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines to iBuy, a Singapore-based ecommerce company, for $18..5 million dollars in cash.

ReachLocalAmong the many cutting-edge innovations in local marketing, search engine optimization is getting to be old hat; in fact, its age and relative familiarity can result in a widespread lack of interest and dedication to using SEO as a primary marketing tool. But ReachLocal is looking to assert SEO’s continuing relevance and lasting power with its new product, ReachSEO...

Every two weeks, Search Influence’s Kelly Benish — who knows practically everyone in hyperlocal — covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week's edition, new hires and jobs at Microsoft, Mediative, hibu, Angie's List and more...

DigitasLBi Labs, the agency’s tech incubator in Paris, has built an in-store shopping assistant that uses image recognition software and Bluetooth low-energy beacons to match, recommend, and display possible additions to a shopper’s wardrobe. The group developed the “inspiration corridor” in conjunction with Klépierre, a french real estate company that operates malls across the country, and has installed the prototype in a Parisian shopping center...

For years, the local marketplace largely missed out on a data revolution that has transformed commerce on the web. But the rapid adoption of the smartphone is quickly bringing the local shopping experience to parity with ecommerce, transforming the consumer journey and dramatically improving the targeting capabilities available to marketers today...