Street Fight Daily: VeriFone Kills Square Competitor, FTC Probe Nears End
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.
VeriFone Gives Up Competing Head-on with Square (GigaOm)
Just seven months after introducing Sail, a payment platform for small merchants that competed with Square, VeriFone is now saying it is retreating from that business and will look to banks and other channel partners to sell the service to merchants.
5 Location-Based Marketing Platforms for Brands Without Retail Stores (Street Fight)
Figuring out where to purchase products from a brand that doesn’t have its own retail establishment can present a challenge for many consumers. Increasingly, major brands like Vicks and Nestlé are using location-based marketing platforms to help point potential buyers in the right direction. Here are five platforms that offer brands a way to take advantage of LBS technology on their own terms.
Deal Near on Google Antitrust Probe? (Politico)
Google is said to be preparing an announcement possibly as soon as next week about new practices regarding the use of “snippets” of user reviews for products, lodgings, restaurants and other categories for a series of related search services Google runs in areas ranging from travel to local services to shopping. That has been one of the key complaints from companies such as Yelp and TripAdvisor, which have protested to Google that it is using their content without permission.
A Street Fight Brews in Europe Over Hyperlocal Info (Street Fight)
Legacy yellow pages providers, domestic start-ups, and American powerhouses like Yelp are vying for the still wide-open European market. Street Fight caught up with 1001 Menus CEO Xavier Zeitoun to discuss the hyperlocal ecosystem on the continent, as well as some of the roadblocks for American companies looking to expand.
With $8M In Seed Funding From Founders Fund, Goldman Sachs; Urban Compass Wants To Build A Hyper-Local, Human-Powered Database (TechCrunch)
If there are a lot of companies out there chasing down the Holy Grail of location services, Urban Compass, a startup still in stealth mode, believes it could be one of the lucky ones that might just find it. Before they’ve even launched a product, though, their company has already managed to catch the eyes (and faith) of several top-shelf investor, who have come together to give Urban Compass $8 million in seed money, one of the highest publicly-disclosed seed rounds of 2012, which is now being used to track down the best talent to build its product.
How Enhanced Targeting Will Change Local Commerce in 2013 (Street Fight)
Eli Chait: Restaurants are moving away from the traditional daily-deal model and demanding more targeted services. In 2013 we will see the marketing landscape dominated by three types of marketing services that address more specific merchant goals: snipers, niche pure plays, and the cycle-conscious.
The Air Above Our Heads: The Growth Of Ambient Social Networking (TechCrunch)
Paul Davison: Ambient social networking is a technology that has just now become possible. It’s not yet obvious why we need it, and it still feels strange to most people, but its potential to transform the world is just staggering.
5 Ways Google Maps Beats Apple Maps (InformationWeek)
The new Google Maps for iPhone app includes voice-guided navigation and much, much more. Here are five features of the new Google-developed mapping application that trounce what Apple offers.
YC Alum Shopular Wants to be Your Location-Aware Retail Couponing Butler (Pando Daily)
Three weeks ago, Y-Combinator alumni Shopular launched a location-aware smart couponing and deals app that is making saving money an effortless experience. Shopular runs persistently in the background and automagically serves up the best coupons and offers for a user’s favorite stores when a user reaches a shopping mall. And it does so, shockingly, with negligible impact on battery life.
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