Street Fight Daily: Search’s Mobile Problem, Square Eyes Back-Office
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology..
First Half Ad Revenue: Search Dominates PC Ads But Not Mobile (Search Engine Land)
The IAB has released its first half 2014 digital advertising revenue figures and total US digital revenues grew 15 percent compared with a year ago to $23.1 billion. While search continues to dominate desktop, it was also the largest slice of mobile advertising — but not by much.
Gannett Papers Evolve to Avoid Becoming Publishing’s ‘Buggy Whips’ (Street Fight)
Tom Grubisich: In the news media’s digitally focused 21st century, newspapers are often dismissed as an “industrial-age” product. But it’s not clear that they’ll become what whale oil was to the 19th century’s petroleum. For a macro-look at how this is playing out at Gannett, we caught up with the media giant’s SVP for News, Kate Marymont.
Square Testing New Payroll Product as Ambition Grows (Recode)
Square is running a pilot test for a new payroll product as the company continues to expand its offerings to complement its main payments business. The new payroll product is designed to handle employee payments and related tax filings for small- and medium-sized businesses.
Making the Case for Ambient Services (Again) (Street Fight)
Jason E. Klein: In many ways the ambient services that failed in 2011 and 2013 are poised for a comeback. Within the next few years, the technology will be in place to make these long sought-after scenarios a reality.
Gannett Earnings Strong, But Publishing Revenues Continue A Steep Slide (Poynter)
At Gannett, U.S publishing ad revenues year-to-date are down 6.3 percent. That difference is more than made up by booming broadcast operations and freestanding digital ventures like CareerBuilder.
PubMatic, xAd Letting Mobile Publishers Create ‘Location-Based Private Markeplaces’ (MediaPost)
Expanding on a partnership first announced in May, PubMatic and xAd on Monday announced they now support the creation of “location-enabled private marketplaces.” The move is about letting publisher get even more specific by creating private marketplaces featuring inventory only from certain locations.
Can Subway Ads Bring Mainstream Users To Foursquare? (Fortune)
Reviving a once-hot app is tricky. Foursquare, the darling of mobile check-ins, is hoping to lure new users in the old-fashioned way: with ads. Foursquare has purchased ads in New York and Chicago and focused on out-of-home spots like bus stops, bike share stations, and subways.
Whirlpool Is Awash in In-Store Display Data from Mobile Tool (AdAge)
The appliance maker is has turned to Gigwalk, which now offers an enterprise version of its mobile crowd-sourcing application, to collect data about how its new Swash product is displayed in stores. Whirlpool is using it to monitor what’s really happening with Swash displays in retail locations including Best Buy stores.
Can You Order a Burger? (New York Times)
In recent months, various companies have been trying to find new ways to monetize the restaurant experience. Inspired by how we pay for concerts, airline tickets and, more recently, transportation, more and more apps and reservation systems have homed in on disrupting a fundamental ritual: how we book a table.
This Is How Uber’s Surge Pricing Is Supposed To Work — If The Company Isn’t Lying To You (Quartz)
Princeton University economist Henry Farber has examined a new set of public data about New York City taxi cabs to answer the age-old question of why you can’t find a cab in the rain. There’s one simple answer—more people take cabs when it’s too wet to walk—that leads to bigger implications.
First Look: Paying With Apple Pay (USA Today)
Edward Baig: Ever since Apple announced the Apple Pay at its big iPhone launch last month I’ve been eager to put the company’s new mobile payments system to the test.With the iOS 8.1 download that became available Monday I got that chance.
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