Street Fight Daily: Facebook Wants a Piece of the Search Pie, Alphabet and Amazon Earnings Reports

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

Facebook Takes Aim at Search Again (Wall Street Journal)
Facebook is touting search as a way for its users to track events in real time. The company’s previous attempt at search launched in 2013 and disappointed in part because of technical complexity. Even so, Mark Zuckerberg has maintained that beefing up search is important to Facebook’s long-term strategy. (Subscription required)

Google CEO Sundar Pichai Cites “Real Sense of Energy and Focus” for Success (TechCrunch)
Alphabet beat Q3 earnings projections, and Google’s Pichai pointed toward momentum seen in Google’s main products, including Search, Maps, and YouTube. He noted that search results now include more than 100 billion deep links from within other apps, something that will help grow its advertising business.

Street Culture: Humility and Good Conversations at Instacart (Street Fight)
On-demand grocery shopping and delivery service Instacart is make headway at disrupting a multi-billion-dollar industry. Driving that effort is a relentless focus on satisfying customers. “Every employee, from the engineers up to our CEO, goes out shopping once a quarter to get an understanding of being a shopper and how our service affects the customer,” said vice president of people Mathew Caldwell.

Amazon Sales Top Estimates (Bloomberg)
Amazon’s stock soared after third-quarter sales topped analysts’ estimates, thanks to the company’s fast-growing cloud-computing division, a boost from its July Prime Day promotion, and a watchful eye on spending.

Openings and New Hires at Thumbtack, Polar, and Yodle (Street Fight)
Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s column, Bing loses its senior product manager in charge of webmaster outreach, newly minted unicorn Thumbtack appoints a CFO and general counsel, Polar hires a Googler as president of international, and Yodle brings on a president for its Brand Networks business.

Here’s the Other Way Uber Makes Money (Fortune)
Hardly a day goes by without Uber launching a new brand partnership. While one-off stunts certainly help keep the company relevant, there’s a broader marketing strategy in place. Just as Uber hastened the arrival of the on-demand economy, it’s helping other brands parse the problem of reaching and retaining customers when they have more options (and are more mobile) than ever.

Is Nextdoor Local Media’s Next Disruptor? (LinkedIn Pulse)
Gordon Borrell: After a phone conversation with co-founder and CEO Nirav Tolia, I’m beginning to wonder if Nextdoor might be poised to disrupt community newspapers. Now that the social network covers half of all U.S. neighborhoods, it appears ready to tap into the $50 billion local digital advertising marketplace.

Starbucks Replaces Square with JPMorgan as New Payments Processor (Recode)
Starbucks will rely on JPMorgan Chase to handle some of its payments processing, replacing Square, which lost money on the deal. Chase Commerce Solutions will process Starbucks’ non-mobile payments and help it introduce chip-enabled terminals.

Shyp Now Lets You Send Packages Without Knowing the Address of the Recipient (The Next Web)
Shyp has enticed both consumers and investors with its mobile-based, hassle-free shipping program. Now the company has made big changes — both cosmetic and structural — to court a larger audience that would just rather not go to the post office.

How Apple Pay Could Be Undone by This Scrappy Fintech Startup (Inc.)
Soundpays, a mobile wallet powered by sound waves, enables you to make instant purchases on your mobile device while browsing in-store, shopping online, viewing an infomercial, or even listening to the radio.

LBMA Podcast: Pinterest Adds Location to Every Place Pin, Niantic Labs Raises $20M (Street Fight)
On the show: Pinterest Place Pins to add automatic location data; Niantic Labs raises $20 million from Google, Pokémon, and Nintendo; Australia’s Westfield malls and CommBank team up for beacon play; Drinkeasy SMS craft spirits delivery service; Onomichi map provides “cat’s-eye view;” MoveLoot does the heavy lifting; RetailNext acquires Pikato.

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