Street Fight Daily: 03.31.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.
According to a new study by Borrell Associates, the portion of the local online advertising market held by internet “pureplays” (as opposed to outlets affiliated with other media) is no longer expanding. For the third year in-a-row, the share of revenue going to pureplays has stayed the same. (PoMo Blog)…

Gordon Borrell on what is driving local advertising growth, why newspapers will fall behind the internet, and why Groupon is such a success. (Media Life)…

As everyone from the largest of media companies to independent local hyperlocal news sites seek to capitalize on the $30B local advertising market, which hyperlocal business models are succeeding and why? How will hyperlocal news change the world of journalism? (ScribeMedia)…

Street Fight Daily: 03.30.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.

Are expiration dates on Groupon deals illegal? Groupon was sued eight times in all of 2010 — but in 2011, that pace has increased. It’s been sued in federal court 12 times this year. (PaidContent)…

CBS Local Digital Media and CityGrid Media have partnered on an advertising/listings initiative targeting local businesses that want to get broad exposure to online and mobile consumers across the country. (Broadcasting & Cable)…

How to start your own local news site. Tips from a Berkeleyside co-founder. (10,000 Words)…

Street Fight Daily: 03.29.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.Ex-TBD chief Jim Brady joins Journal Register “to lead the Digital Transformation of all of its newsroom on all platforms.” (Journal Register Company Press Release)… A new study from Borrell Associates has found that national Internet pure-plays Autotrader.com and Groupon have taken the lead in generating advertising dollars in many local markets. (NetNewsCheck)… Human participation — and thus social media — is central to successful hyperlocal platforms. It’s all about community empowerment. Here are 4 interesting hyperlocal social media ideas. (eMedia Vitals/Ron Mwangaguhunga)…

EveryBlock’s Community Shift

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Who: EveryBlock

Why: Because the company realized that simply shoving aggregated content at people isn’t doing anyone a service.

There’s a solid and growing audience for this, but we’ve realized there’s a much bigger potential here. Simply put, there’s no great way to communicate with your neighbors online. Adrian Holovaty, March 21, 2011

WhosHere? Two Billion Free Text Messages, That’s Who

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I’ve been wondering what happened to WhosHere, and all at once a friend pinged me about them and I’m sent a news bulletin trumpeting how myRete (developer of WhosHere) has delivered its 2 billionth free message on behalf us its 2.5 million members. Nice.

So what is it? As the company states:

WhosHere is the first mobile social networking app for the iPhone to let users meet new people and interact based on proximity. The application introduces a user to others with whom they have something in common. When a user finds someone interesting, they can send free text and image messages and make free VOIP calls. All this is done without disclosing any personal information unless the user chooses to provide it.

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Surprise! SoLoMo is Hot!

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The Wall Street Journal reports today that the floodgates held back by VC stinginess, myopia and ignorance have been loosed following excitement over – yep – mobile social … or social mobile + local … or social local mobile if you like.

At least in the Valley, where these things tend to happen, pushing and shoving is going on to get a piece of several startups in the space (if SoLoMo can be considered one space, and we think it can).

“We would have people show up at our offices every other day wanting to meet while we were trying to get work done,” said Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom. Since launching in October, the service has nearly three million users, he said.

In addition, Yobongo Inc., a three-week-old iPhone app that lets users chat with people located in their geographic area, said Wednesday it raised $1.35 million. In January a group-texting service called GroupMe said it raised $10.6 million.

For the whole story check it here. And see their nifty chart below:…

5 Questions for Grant Ritchie of Locationary

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This is the tenth in a series of Q&As with leaders / up-and-comers in the local space.

Who he is: Grant Ritchie, CEO of Locationary

What he does: A serial entrepreneur, Ritchie is a lawyer and technologist whose day-to-day includes providing Locationary oversight, guidance and direction over operations and technology systems. Prior to Locationary, Grant was a commercial and technology lawyer at a large Toronto firm and was part of the founding team that built and launched several online businesses including Moola.com (a game network with over 430,000 registered members) and CanadianHotelGuide.com

Examiner.com Bets on Real IDs with Facebook Comments

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Examiner.com continues to roll. Along with several others including TechCrunch it has implemented the next phase of Facebook’s Comments plugin. The somewhat controversial updated system integrates relevant, high‐quality, and authentic comments to publishers and sites that will be reciprocated on Facebook. Ah, the virtuous recirculation; the circle of SEO wonderfulness…

GroupMe Launches ‘Joinable’ Groups (Pssst, groupflier Already Has Them!)

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We’ve been over this before: while at AOL in the ’90s I failed to get approval for something I dubbed “Broadcast IM” — the ability to send instant messages via IM (AIM) to more than one person simultaneously, with each user’s response seen by everyone. Kinda like a listserv. Kinda like, yeah, Twitter.

Anyway, a few years later along came the wonderful (for its time) Upoc — group mobile texting and voice messaging. Then the tech bubble and subsequent mobile innovation collapse and general malaise among Americans regarding their use of cellphones beyond blabbing. I feared data on cellphones would become “soccer” – popular everywhere else in the world but too difficult with T9 for lazy Americans. Tick Tock… Hello iPhone. At last things began to really change, as we all now know…

Geolocated Insta-Deals Demand You Buy Nearby NOW!

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So you want to be on the receiving end of the latest revolution in capitalism: I’m speaking of daily deals of course. You’ve got lots of options, some of which are critiqued on this site, and some not yet. And one that doesn’t actually exist so I made it up – NeMeNo.

And now LivingSocial has done something very expected, as mentioned before, called Instant Deals…

5 Questions for Jack Eisenberg of MapDing

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This is the ninth in a series of Q&As with leaders / up-and-comers in the local space.

Who is he: Jack Eisenberg

What does he do: One of two founders of MapDing (formed last September and self-funded) Jack calls himself a serial entrepreneur who wants to make life easier through mobile technology. “In a previous life, I published a year’s worth of research across Japan and the Netherlands on immigration. I also worked in city government, political consulting, and as an ESL teacher at a non-profit,” he said. The Chicagoan also notes “I will always be an autodidact.” OK!…