Street Fight Daily: Google Maps Adds Uber, Square Expands Partnerships
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology
Google Maps On Mobile Gets Uber Integration (TechCrunch)
Google has updated its apps for iOS and Android with a bunch of new features, including Uber integration directly in its collection of options for travel directions. The Uber option will appear when you’re looking up transit, offering you the estimated time for trips using the car hire service, and launching Uber instantly with a single tap.
What’s in a Swarm? Making Sense of Foursquare’s Split (Street Fight)
Damian Rollison: It’s hard to envision now, but it could be that a decoupled discovery and recommendation service will be just what Foursquare needs to scale its dataset beyond entertainment and to encourage users to improve the quality and accuracy of venue information. These developments would turn Foursquare into a viable competitor to data aggregators like Infogroup and possibly to Google Maps itself.
Square Partners With Inventory Tracking Service Stitch Labs (Fortune)
Over the past year, Square has announced several partnerships with key developers of software for small businesses. The San Francisco-based company’s latest integration is with Stitch Labs, maker of inventory management software for small merchants — one of Square’s core demographics.
At Groupon, Mobile Doesn’t Mean Local (Yet) (Street Fight)
For the first time last quarter the majority of the company’s transactions came from a mobile device. And yet, the company also hit another, less celebrated, milestone: its local business accounted for less than half of its total billings.
New Google Now Feature Aims at Amazon (Wall Street Journal)
Google wants to help brick and mortar retailers reach customers more effectively, especially on smartphones, as competition over product-related searches heats up with Amazon. It is updating its Google Now offering to aid that effort. The app can now point out products users might be interested in based on their searches.
PayPal Is Quietly Killing Off A Confusing Way To Pay In Stores (ReadWrite)
PayPal has stopped promoting its Payment Card to consumers and erased most references to it from its website, and may soon discontinue it. The card, a magnetic-stripe plastic card similar to credit and debit cards in appearance but linked to a PayPal account, will still be honored by merchants who accept it.
Foursquare CEO on Splitting Its App: ‘At First, We Thought It Was Crazy’ (Mashable)
Foursquare co-founder and CEO Dennis Crowley spoke on stage for the first time since the company’s major announcement that it will split the app into two. During the New York Ideas conference in Manhattan on Tuesday, Crowley said that “at first, we thought it was crazy to do this, but it makes total sense.”
In the Land of Vertical Craigslists, the Familiar is King (Pando)
If Airbnb could strip business away from Craigslist for housing, why can’t other verticals follow suit? That’s the thinking behind NextMover, an online marketplace for finding someone to help you move. The founders are hoping to win customers away from Craigslist by building a safer platform that focuses solely on finding movers.
Airbnb Taps Former Coke Exec Jonathan Mildenhall as CMO (AdAge)
Jonathan Mildenhall is leaving Coca-Cola to become Airbnb’s CMO. Mr. Mildenhall will take over for Amy Curtis-McIntyre — a seasoned top marketer with stints at Old Navy, JetBlue and Hyatt — as chief marketer at the startup, which created a global marketplace for people to rent out rooms, apartments and houses.
While Commoners Use OpenTable, Fabulous Jet-Setters are Booking on Table8 (VentureBeat)
The recently launched Table8 is working on snagging last-minute spots at tony restaurants. and it has a new $4.6 million to do so. Table8 partners with popular restaurants and lets diners book last-minute reservations at establishments that normally book up very quickly.
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