Street Fight Daily: Yahoo Launches Yelp Help, Retail’s Red Herring
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology
Yahoo Launches Yelp Help in Search to Better Battle Google: Here’s What It Looks Like (Recode)
As was previously reported that it would, Yahoo has integrated Yelp into its local search results. It’s all part of an effort by CEO Marissa Mayer to boost search revenue and improve experience, as the Silicon Valley Internet giant looks to increase its market share against the relentless juggernaut of Google.
In ‘Smart Cities,’ A Sea Change for the Web (Street Fight)
Steven Jacobs: Over the past decade, a new vision of the future has emerged, in which mobility, and ubiquitous connectivity is actually drawing us back into the physical world. Anthony Townsend, a senior research scientist at New York University, spoke to Street Fight recently about about the Smart City movement and the changing relationship between the physical and digital worlds.
New Data Suggests “Showrooming” on Amazon Might Not be Killing Physical Retail After All (Pando)
We tend to think about ‘showrooming’ – the practice of browsing in real life and purchasing online – as the mortal enemy of retail shopping. The end of local bookstores! According to data provided to PandoDaily by ShopAdvisor, and including details of 128,000 items people are scanning in store to purchase later (some $8m of potential transactions), the truth isn’t as scary as some retailers might fear.
Can New Local Media Consortium Succeed Where Others Have Not? (Street Fight)
Tom Grubisich: For two decades, legacy media have tried to pool their threatened resources and capture digital ad revenue to replace the billions of dollars that stopped flowing to their newspapers and TV stations. Now, a new group of old-media companies have banded together to form the Local Media Consortium in the hopes that it will it be able to succeed where other tie-ups have not.
Google Tests Desktop-to-Mobile Retargeting With Brand Data (AdAge)
Google is pitching advertisers on a new kind of ad targeting that aims to improve on the ubiquitous tracking cookie. The technology allows advertisers to target people who’ve visited their web sites with ads on tablets and smartphones, according to agency execs who’ve been briefed.
Cars.com Said to Draw Interest From Cox Enterprises, Apax (Bloomberg)
Cox, the media holding company, and London-based buyout firm Apax Partners, are interested in bidding for auto-sales website Cars.com, people with knowledge of the matter said. The group of newspaper publishers that’s working with Moelis & Co. to explore a sale of Cars.com hasn’t formally solicited bids for the business yet, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
How Location Analytics Will Transform Retail (Harvard Business Review)
Just as web analytics is an essential tool on the Web, location analytics will become a must-have for designing, managing, and measuring offline experiences. With leading companies already onboard with location analytics, it will become commonplace in venues — especially for major brands — over the next several years and a major competitive gap for those that don’t adopt the practice.
Don’t Rush for Beacon-Tech Gold Until You’ve Got a Plan (AdAge)
Fashion retailer Chico’s made news last month with ambitious plans to beam marketing messages to shoppers’ smartphones using beacon technology. We can count on this to be the leading edge of a gold rush, as marketers chase the twin ideals of consumer understanding and personalization that beacon seems to make possible.
Growing Quietly in Airbnb’s Shadow (Fortune)
Airbnb and HomeAway may be in different businesses, but they appear to be on something of a collision course. While Airbnb got its start with shared rentals, people close to the company say that about two-thirds of its listings now are for entire properties.
Google Wallet for Android and iOS Now Lets You Track Your Current and Past Online Orders (TheNextWeb)
Google today announced an update to its Google Wallet app for Android and iOS, which adds a new feature called Orders, which requires your receipts to be first sent to your Gmail account. It now lets you automatically track your online orders, receive notifications about status updates, and track all your past orders as well.
Rover, a Doggy Airbnb, Raises $12M Round Led by Menlo Ventures (GigaOm)
Though they aren’t raising the huge nine-figure funding rounds of fellow sharing economy companies Airbnb and Uber, pet sitting startups Rover and DogVacay are getting more VC attention. Dog sitting service Rover on Wednesday announced it has raised a $12 million Series C round, led by new investor and Silicon Valley institution Menlo Ventures.
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