Street Fight Daily: 07.25.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.
Conquering “local” remains one of the largest opportunities on the Internet today, and it seems as though Twitter’s unique position has gone largely unnoticed, writes Victor Wong of PaperG. “If Twitter chose to focus more on location, higher user engagement and even monetization would likely follow.” (TechCrunch)
OpenTable, the restaurant reservation Web site, will offer 30 percent off some dinner reservations through a new partnership with Savored, a start-up that offers daily deals for high-end restaurants. (New York Times/Bits)
DNAinfo is betting that local businesses will find value in the site’s neighborhood-targeted audiences. “Merchants want to reach these people,” publisher Leela de Kretser says. “They especially want to reach the Manhattan demographic and the people in their neighborhood. Year one was about building the audience; year two is about building the sales team.” (Adweek)
Groupon’s recent changes to its privacy policy are drawing scrutiny on Capitol Hill. Earlier this month, the company said it would start collecting and sharing more information about users with its business partners. On Thursday, congressmen asked CEO and founder Andrew Mason a host of pointed questions about the company’s intentions. (MediaPost)
When it comes to local commerce, the ultimate prize everyone is going after right now is how to close the redemption loop. In order to complete the circle and track offers all the way through redemptions, it is necessary to either tap into the payment system or create an alternative way to track redemptions. (TechCrunch)
Innovative mobile games are using geo-location, image recognition and augmented reality technologies to combine the real and virtual worlds. This will present a valuable opportunity to marketers that want to foster emotional connections with their audiences. (Mashable)
In celebration of its first 20 million reviews, Yelp has posted a map showing how reviews were spread around the country. Bi-Rite Cremery in San Francisco is the most reviewed business, with 3,837 users weighing in. (Business Insider)
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