Street Fight Daily: Twitter Buys Gnip, Google Developing Microcamera Contact Lens
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology
Twitter Embraces Its Data and Buys Gnip (GigaOm)
Twitter has acquired Gnip, the Boulder, Colo.-based startup that specializes in giving users access to data from the Twitter firehose. Gnip is one of a handful of companies with full access to the stream of activity from Twitter, which has garnered it a lot of knowledge about how to deal with such immense data volumes and deliver it as a product to businesses.
In Run-Up to IPO, Yodle Makes Its Bet on Local Marketing Automation (Street Fight)
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that local marketing firm Yodle was shopping for banks to underwrite a potential public offering. In an interview with Street Fight, Court Cunningham, chief executive at Yodle, declined to comment on the reports, but talked about the the evolution of the small business marketing space, the rise of local marketing automation, and the subsequent push by these companies to bundle services into an integrated product.
Google’s Microcamera Contact Lens Is Coming to an Eyeball Near You (Time)
After Google Glass, the next “moon shot” Google product might very well be a contact lens with a built-in micro-camera. The tech giant has filed a patent application on a smart lens with sensors that could detect light, pattern of colors, objects and faces. Those wearing the contacts would command the device through a sophisticated system of unique blinking patterns, as explained by the blog Patent Bold.
Microsoft Research Project Tells You What a Neighborhood Is Thinking (Street Fight)
HereHere, which launched earlier this year, profiles the 42 neighborhoods in New York City by collecting publicly available 311 data to reveal the most talked-about issues in the boroughs. By entering their zip code, a user can interact with an animated map displaying the neighborhood’s statuses, seeing updates like “delighted” or “uncomfortable.”
Seeking Growth, The Payments Industry Embraces New Technologies (TechCrunch)
Now a victim of its own omnipresent success, the global electronic payments industry is increasingly turning to new technologies as it looks to expand its footprint and find new ways to make money by getting consumers to spend theirs. Startup companies are beginning to make their presence felt even among giant companies like Visa, Mastercard, and the privately held First Data Corp.
Why Pinterest Is The Google Competitor You Weren’t Expecting (ReadWrite)
There are now nearly one billion “Place Pins” on Pinterest, the company said in an email Monday. And with that announcement, Pinterest moves one step closer to becoming a true search engine alternative to Google. Now, Pinterest’s Place Pins aren’t going to replace Google Maps anytime soon—or ever. But for users that would rather graze than pinpoint one exact spot, Place Pins are great for browsing various locales around the globe.
Survey: Facebook the Top Mobile App for Writing Local Reviews (ScreenWerk)
According to the newly published “Local Mobile Trends Study” from the Local Search Association (conducted by Thrive Analytics) Facebook is the by far the app of choice when writing a local review on a smartphone or tablet. The survey asked how many people had written reviews and then about the preferred device for writing them. Among those under 53 years old, about 70% said they had written a review online.
Kimberly-Clark Gets Serious With Its Digital-Coupon Tracking (AdAge)
Packaged-goods marketers have been shifting to digital coupons from paper for years, but most of those electronic deals aren’t individually coded. That’s a big miss for marketers because the coupons can’t be used to build customer-relationship-management programs that track how people use and share deals. Now, Kimberly-Clark Co. is looking to end the data blindness that comes from selling most of its products through retailers.
Paying for News by Filling a Need (Nieman Lab)
Jake Batsell: What can the news business learn from the Nest thermostat? It solves a problem, and people are willing to pay for it. News sites should similarly aim to fill a need for — and, better yet, delight — their audiences, argues Michael Maness, the Knight Foundation’s vice president of journalism and media innovation.
Get Street Fight Daily in your inbox! Subscribe to our newsletter.
