Street Fight Daily: Google Simplifies SMB Tools, Handbook Raises $30M

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

googleGoogle Streamlines Its Tools for Small Businesses (New York Times)
On Wednesday, Google announced the introduction of Google My Business, a streamlined platform for small businesses to use its tools. The platform allows businesses to update their information, add photos, share news and see reviews, all in one place.

Attention and Timing Are the New ‘Clicks,’ Chartbeat Says (Street Fight)
Tom Grubisich: The analytics firm digs deep into how users behave at their computer, smartphone, and tablet. Then it flows the data points to the client’s dashboard, where editors, in real time, can see how their users are behaving and take steps to increase traffic and engagement.

CBS to Sell CBS Outdoor Stake, Paving Way for Expansion at Outdoor Company (AdAge)
CBS took the final step in the spinoff of its billboard business following CBS Outdoor Americas’ initial public offering in March, with a plan to fully divest its 81% ownership. CBS Outdoor will compete with Lamar Advertising and Clear Channel Outdoor and put a priority on digital billboards.

Case Study: Mountain Shop Finds Balance Between Paid and Unpaid Promotions (Street Fight)
Soon after taking over control of the 34-year-old mountain shop Alpenglow Sports, in Tahoe City, California, Brendan Madigan got to work crafting a strategic marketing plan that included both online and offline initiatives and relied heavily on social media for generating awareness among customers in his target demographics.

On-Demand Home Services Startup Handybook Raises $30M From Steve Case’s Revolution Growth (TechCrunch)
Handybook hopes to provide users with a way to hire cleaners or a handyman with the push of a button on their mobile phones. The company today is announcing it has raised a $30 million round of funding from Revolution Growth to support its expansion in new markets.

Resistance Is Futile: Apple And Google Are Going To Track Your Location No Matter What (ReadWrite)
Dan Rowinski: Soon, Google’s Android may have the capability to automatically interact with people, places and things within your immediate vicinity. Because before long, you won’t be able to hide your location from your smartphone—or from all the developers, marketers and advertisers that want to know where you are.

Will Amazon’s Local Services Marketplace Kill Yelp And Angie’s List? (Forbes)
In two separate notes released Wednesday, analysts defended Yelp and Angie, saying that the growth they are poised to achieve could cushion them in the event Amazon invades their turf. One analyst noted that Amazon’s push into local services/searches could spark a reaction from companies like Google, eBay, Yahoo and even Apple.

With Uber, Less Reason to Own a Car (New York Times)
Farah Manjoo: Uber could well transform transportation the way Amazon has altered shopping — by using slick, user-friendly software and mountains of data to completely reshape an existing market, ultimately making many modes of urban transportation cheaper, more flexible and more widely accessible to people across the income spectrum.

How Community Newspapers Can Face the Digital Transition (Nieman Journalism Lab)
In her new book, Penelope Muse Abernathy examines the divide between metro papers and rural or ethnic papers as they deal with digital competition, ownership changes, and the search for new revenue. She found that the obstacles to change for community papers can differ from their larger counterparts.

In Push Beyond Planning, TripAdvisor Opens Up Hotel Booking From Phones (Recode)
Starting today, the travel content site TripAdvisor will help people book hotels directly from their phones. It’s an important move for TripAdvisor, which is trying to move beyond its strongholds of pre-and post-vacation interaction, when people read and write reviews.

Beautiful Illusions: The Economics of UberX (Gawker)
Last month, Uber boasted that its drivers command a median salary of $90,000 per year. This is not totally honest. Justin Singer wades into the financial morass, and says the truth about how much Uber drivers make is very far from simple.

China’s Yelp-Like Dianping Said to Appoint Advisers for U.S. IPO (Businessweek)
Dianping, the operator of a Yelp-like website in China, is working with Goldman Sachs Group investment banks on an initial public offering in the U.S., said people with knowledge of the matter. Dianping had more than 100 million active users in the first quarter for its reviews and discounts for food and entertainment.

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