Street Fight Daily: 10.14.11

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

MapQuest’s new Vibe uses data collected from the past 10 years about cities’ most popular destinations. Vijay Bangaru, MapQuest vice president of product, writes that the concept originated out of a shift in users’ needs from “maps and directions” to “local search.”  (Mashable)

Groupon and LivingSocial succeed because consumers perceive them as great deals. But is that true?  Perhaps not.  Thumbtack.com called 10 vendors offering daily deals (five from Groupon and five from LivingSocial) and found eight instances where they were quoted a price over the phone that was cheaper than the advertised regular price being offered. (Business Insider)

You wouldn’t think that your local megaplex shopping mall is leading the way in terms of social media engagement, but you’d be wrong. Simon Property Group, owners of hundreds of malls across America, is doing it right when it comes to how they engage their store owners and consumers. (ReadWriteWeb)

UBS analysts Brian Pitz and Brian Fitzgerald believe AOL’s investments in hyperlocal network Patch will heighten this quarter, though its too early to tell the prospects of monetization. (NYConvergence)

DataSphere has only recently zeroed in on coupons’ potential as “an adjacent space” to normal SMB activities, along with events, notes SVP Gary Cowan. Coupons are actually easier to pull off than daily deals because “they don’t require the level of investment from partners,” he says. (Local Onliner)

San Francisco hyperlocal news site Mission Loc@l has launched the “Be Mission Market,” an online marketplace where local artists and entrepreneurs can sell their locally sourced products and services. (Mission Loc@l)

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