Street Fight Daily: Airport Tracks Travelers, Yahoo Looks to Contextual Search
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.
At Newark Airport, the Lights Are On, and They’re Watching You (New York Times)
Visitors to Terminal B at Newark Liberty International Airport may notice the bright, clean lighting that now blankets the cavernous interior, courtesy of 171 recently installed LED fixtures. But they probably will not realize that the light fixtures are the backbone of a system that is watching them.
Location, Relevancy, and the Search for Personalization (Street Fight)
Joe Morsello: Marketers today have access to an unprecedented amount of data about consumers and their environment that go well beyond location, ranging from their demographics and shopping behavior to the time of day and weather. However, local marketers continue to fail to leverage this throve of new data to create and deliver relevant, quality and personalized ads to consumers. And it’s a big missed opportunity.
More on Mayer’s Search Plans for Yahoo: The “Three S’s” and Slipping Through a Microsoft Loophole (Recode)
Kara Swisher: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is trying to consolidate projects all internally in a plan that is being called the “three S’s” — Stream, Shopping and Search. But rather than focusing on the Web and keywords, which Yahoo is contractually bound to allow Microsoft to serve under a 10-year search and advertising partnership deal, Mayer is aiming all this toward mobile and contextual search.
3 Key Trends That Are Transforming Local Online Marketing (Street Fight)
Court Cunningham: Small businesses face increasing marketing complexity driven by more fragmented media outlets and more online channels, and a vast array of marketing technology that is supposed to “help” them simplify this dynamic. SMBs are being forced to rethink where they advertise and how to stay in touch with existing loyal customers.
Apple’s IDFA Crackdown Reverberates Through Mobile Ad Ecosystem (AdExchanger)
Many app developers and ad tech vendors received a jolt recently when Apple began rejecting some apps that retrieve a user’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) without serving an ad. Apple’s decision was especially surprising, since the device manufacturer had allowed that activity for nearly two years.
Uber’s New “Expanded” Background Checks: Just a PR Move or the Real Deal? (Pando)
Last week Uber announced that it would be expanding its background checks of all drivers to include federal and county records. Uber’s original “national criminal background checks” also sounded very official — the company even called them “stringent.” And if you look how those checks panned out, the short answer is: not well.
How Big are Mobile Payments in China? Nearly $1.6 trillion in Transactions Were Made in 2013 (MarketingLand)
Late last week, the Pew Research Center released the results of multiple country surveys about mobile technology adoption and internet usage. Combine the findings with the fact that most mobile phone owners in these markets don’t have smartphones, and the inescapable conclusion is that the future of internet access is going to be primarily mobile (including tablets).
Square CFO Sarah Friar on Her Career In Tech – And Why Some High School Kids Are Asking For More Homework (International Business Times)
A few weeks ago, Sarah Friar, the chief financial officer of mobile payment company Square, was added to the board of software analytics company New Relic. It’s the latest in a series of career moves that has taken her from South Africa to London to San Francisco through the world of engineering, corporate finance and, finally, tech startups.
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