Street Fight Daily: Google Sells Users’ Tips, AT&T Exits Mobile Ad Business

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology

google-plus-iconGoogle to Sell Users’ Endorsements (New York Times)
Google on Friday announced that it would soon be able to show users’ names, photos, ratings and comments in ads across the Web, endorsing marketers’ products – a tactic, which Facebook already uses. If a user follows a bakery on Google Plus or gives an album four stars on the Google Play music service, for instance, that person’s name, photo and endorsement could show up in ads for that bakery or album.

Foursquare Introduces Ads For Small Businesses (Street Fight)
This morning the company rolled out its flagship small business advertising product, capping a two-year effort to solve the company’s toughest challenge yet: making money. With the new product, which the company has been piloting in New York since May, local businesses will be able to buy ads that surface in the search results pages or home screen of its popular mobile app

AT&T Is Ending Its ‘AdWorks’ Mobile Experiment And Laying Off Staff (Business Insider)
AT&T appears to be reducing staff at its AdWorks offices and largely ending its experiment in mobile and digital ad sales, with many of the staff associated with AdWorks mobile in New York laid off this week, sources tell Business Insider. The company had hoped to put together a network of mobile publishers — apps and so on — that it could offer advertisers, coupled with the company’s own anonymized data.

Should Hyperlocal Publishers Accept Barter Deals? (Street Fight)
Terry Heaton: Most of the better known hyperlocal sites we contacted told us they didn’t do trade or barter, and they didn’t want to talk about it on the record. In Dallas, hyperlocal pioneer Mike Orren said people don’t talk about it because they don’t want to attract the attention of auditors, or they don’t want competitors to know that they’ll do barter. He agreed, however, that trade is “absolutely viable” for independents.

AOL Looking at Faster Exit from Patch (Rayno Report)
Scott Raynovich: AOL is looking for a faster exit out of the headache known as Patch, its localized news service, say sources familiar with the company’s thinking. The company reportedly is looking at hiring a banker to sell the properties outright or find a strategic partner and one source, with close ties the New York’s media deal-making community, says some large media conglomerates including newspaper chains might be interested in some of the Patch assets.

In-Store Tracking Isn’t Going Anywhere: Nomi Close to Landing Around $10 Million Series B Investment (AllThingsD)
Nomi, a New York City-based startup that tracks shoppers’ mobile phones to help retail shops gather data on customer activity in their stores, is close to landing a Series B investment, sources told AllThingsD. Nomi is among a handful of startups, including Euclid and RetailNext, that are gaining traction with retailers by bringing metrics popular in Web analytics to brick-and-mortar retail shops that historically know very little about who walks in and out of their stores each day.

Wanderful Media Has Big Media Partners And Lots Of Cash, But That Can’t Save Its Find&Save iPad App (PandoDaily)
Despite the best efforts of media companies and consumer brands, all attempts to date to modernize the Sunday circular concept have fallen short. Wanderful Media is looking to change that, and today extended its popular Web-based Find&Save digital circular brand to the iPad. The premise of Find&Save for iPad is that the large touchscreen provides the best experience within which to browse digital circulars.

Geo-Location, Geo-Fencing & Creep Factor: The Future of Location Data and Mobile Advertising (ClickZ)
Technologic advances have allowed interactive mobile engagement through ad retargeting and location based push solutions. Marketers that use these strategies to create meaningful connections between brands and consumers will win the day. However, although marketers are ready to utilize these advancements, privacy concerns and a lack of understanding among consumers about how retargeting works hold us back.

Catalina Buys ‘Certain Assets’ of Local Offer Network (Screenwerk)
Greg Sterling: Late last week, Catalina Marketing announced that it acquired “certain assets” of the Local Offer Network, which has been struggling to reposition itself after the collapse of the daily deal market. The acquisition will bring a mix of web-based properties, clients (150+ publishers), technology and personnel to Catalina, which is based in Florida.

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