Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Redesigns, $15M for Indiegogo
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.
Foursquare Gets A New Look: Redesign Makes Checking In Stickier And More Social (TechCrunch)
Foursquare, the app that lets people virtually “check in” to places that they physically visit, has debuted a new top-to-bottom redesign of its mobile applications. The new look is pretty clearly aimed at letting people interact more with others on the site. The new version of the app also more prominently features opinions on check-in locations that are penned by Foursquare users and also brought in from third-party sites.
Kickstarter Competitor Indiegogo Raises $15M (BetaBeat)
Crowdfunding platform Indiegogo just raised $15 million from venture capital investors in order to staff up, build out and take on Kickstarter and 400 other competitors (including one crowdfunding platform that launched after raising money on Indiegogo). The company uses crowdfunding to finance small businesses and other creative projects.
In Scare for Newspapers, Digital Ad Growth Stalls (Reuters)
As more newspapers cut back on print to reduce costs and focus on their websites, a troubling trend has emerged: online advertising sales are stalling. In the first quarter, digital advertising revenue at newspapers rose just 1 percent from a year ago, the fifth consecutive quarter that growth has declined, according to the Newspaper Association of America, a trade organization.
Search Beats Display By Large Margin in Mobile Ad Spending, Study Shows (Paid Content)
According to a report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, mobile ad buyers in Europe and Asia are spending almost three times more on search: a combined $2,284 million versus $858 million. In North America, the discrepancy is smaller but still tilted heavily in favor of search over display: $811 million versus $572 million. Ads related to mobile messaging make up a much smaller category.
How David Simon Is Wrong About Paywalls (CJR)
Howard Owens: First, Simon and I agree: that journalism is important. That newspapers giving their content away for free online is a bad idea. That investigative/enterprise journalism is expensive. That the beat system plays an important role in watchdog journalism, and beat journalism requires paid professionals who are in it for the long haul. That said, there are at least 10 arguments against paywalls.
Meet the Future of Google Maps (Mashable)
Offline mapping for Android phones, Street View for nature trails and 3D Google Earth maps are all improvements coming to Google Maps in the near future. The three new features were unveiled by company executives at a press event at the company’s San Francisco offices.
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