Street Fight Daily: Twitter Acquires Spindle, SocialRadar Nabs $12.75M
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology
Twitter Acquires Local Discovery Startup Spindle (AllThingsD)
Twitter has acquired Spindle, a social startup focused on the location and check-in space, and discovering local places of interest nearby. The brainchild of a group of ex-Microsoft search engineers, the app sifted through the torrent of data that streamed through the social Web — from places like Facebook and Twitter — on a minute-by-minute basis, and would deliver users local points of interest like restaurants or stores based on tweets, location and time of day.
Gannett’s Acquisition of Belo’s TV Stations Puts Focus on Hyperlocal Push (Street Fight)
Tom Grubisich: Gannett brags that its acquisition of Belo’s TV stations creates a broadcast “super group.” But perhaps the biggest implication about the merger is not its “super”-ness, but what it will mean in the hyperlocal digital space where both companies, especially Gannett, are trying to build a post-broadcast future.
Blackboard Co-Founder Michael Chasen Raises $12.75M Series A For SocialRadar, A New Take On Location-Based People Discovery Apps (TechCrunch)
If you thought the “ambient location” craze has passed, prepare to be surprised. SocialRadar, a company founded by BlackBoard founder Michael Chasen, is announcing today that it has raised $12.75 million in Series A funding for a mobile, location-based people discovery app that focuses on not just who’s nearby, but how you know them.
Case Study: How a National Restaurant Group Uses Hyperlocal Platforms (Street Fight)
As the national sales and marketing director for East Coast Saloons, a management company that operates bars and restaurants nationwide including McFadden’s, Calico Jack’s, and Johnny Utah’s in New York City, Gina Groh fields cold calls from hyperlocal startups on a daily basis. When deciding whether a particular platform will be a good fit for East Coast Saloons, Groh is primarily concerned with the return on investment and the time involved in setting up the system.
How Yelp Might Clean Up the Restaurant Industry (Atlantic)
Michael Luca, a Harvard Business School professor who studies consumer decision making, says that the way we choose restaurants has changed in the past 15 years—now we tend to check out menus, reviews, even photos ahead of time, online. “People aren’t looking at doors the way they used to,” he told the Atlantic. “The digital version of posting grades on doors is trying to post on something like Yelp.”
Nearly 30 Percent Of UK Travel Searchers Use Mobile Exclusively (MarketingLand)
Nielsen, xAd and Telmetrics have released new data from their expansive “Mobile Path to Purchase” study of US and UK mobile consumer behavior, focused on mobile behavior in the travel vertical in the UK. The data show increasing reliance by UK consumers on mobile for travel research and the growing importance of mobile in the travel-purchase process.
Cartography For the Masses: Where Online Maps Are Taking Us (GigaOm)
It’s now easier than ever to create your own maps — and to pick exactly what you want to feature. That’s a good thing, says the founder of one mapmaking firm, because more creative maps will lead to more creative ideas.
Auto Trader Embraces Location-based Advertising (The Drum)
Car sales brand Auto Trader has announced a partnership with digital group Amscreen in a move towards location based advertising. The partnership allows Auto Trader to use Amscreen location technology to display cars for sale within a ten-mile radius of the selected forecourts.
Tasti D-Lite’s loyalty program fueled by Twitter, Foursquare (Ragan)
Tasti D-Lite has melded punch cards and coupons with the word-of-mouth that is social media—a double dip of customer loyalty and free advertising, says B.J. Emerson, who is vice president of technology for Tasti/Smoothie. The company gave customers the option to connect their loyalty cards to their Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare accounts, so when a customer checks-in or tweets a message goes out through those accounts.
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