Street Fight Daily: How SMBs Can Win at Local Search, Uber’s New Feature Is a Lot Like Foursquare

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

How Brick-and-Mortar Merchants Can Win Local Search (Street Fight)
A battle is being waged online, as independent merchants struggle for top billing in local search results. We asked six experts for their best strategies for “winning” local search. Here’s what they said.

Uber Will Give You Things To Do While You’re On Your Trip (Mashable)
Uber has launched a feature called Uber Trip Experiences that lets third-party developers give users fun or productive things to do during their trips. One example is gamification, in which Uber riders could earn points or rewards for moving around the city. While Foursquare-style badges are now a bit passé, grabbing virtual points (and real-life rewards) while you’re riding with Uber might give a second wind to the concept.

Ad Tech, Local Media, and the 2016 Political Campaign (Street Fight)
Andrea Duggan: In this year’s presidential campaign, news and information consumers can be reached via a wide range of channels, and media buys can be executed in milliseconds. Now that local inventory has joined this channel, political camps have the ability to execute local campaigns on a massive scale.

How Oracle Is Helping Retailers Sell More Stuff (Recode)
Oracle is best known for its database software and powerful suite of applications aimed at large companies, but in recent years, it’s gone deeper into a few of its “vertical industries” by building or buying technology aimed at a specific line of business. One of those is retail.

Turf Talk Redux: Looking for the Future in Companies, People, and Products (Street Fight)
Rick Robinson: As I rev this column back up after a few years of hiatus, my focus will range from talking to publishers of media conglomerates, to looking for clues to the future, to treading out on a limb with promises of what’s next.

Ecommerce Startup Hubba On Track to Raise $45 Million (Wall Street Journal)
Hubba, a startup that refers to itself as the “LinkedIn for products,” is on track to raise $45 million in new financing as it looks to expand the use of its consumer product-information platform beyond North America to the U.K. (Subscription required)

Google Exec: Drone Deliveries Could Come in One Year (CNN)
Google’s head of “Project Wing” says the initiative’s goal of delivery of goods to customers by drones is possible in the next one to three years. Google is currently working with NASA to create an air traffic control system that would allow for the safe operation of drones in U.S. airspace.

Report: Only 36% Begin Local Searches with a Search Engine (LSA Insider)
The conclusion of a YP-commissioned report on consumer path-to-purchase, which asserts that its findings reflect “no standard path for local searches,” is that marketers need to be present in all the places consumers look for local information. The funnel is dead; long live the local “zigzag.”

Amazon Plans Big Acquisition in Push to Take On FedEx, UPS (Fortune)
Amazon is expected to acquire French shipping company Colis Privé as part of a plan to take on FedEx and UPS. The ecommerce giant already owns 25 percent of the company through a 2014 investment. Colis Privé would continue to ship packages on behalf of its customers after the acquisition, which would close in the first quarter.

Yelp Promotes Local Sales Head to CRO (GeoMarketing)
Yelp has promoted Jed Nachman to serve as its chief revenue officer as the company continues to fend off Facebook and Google from encroaching on its core business, while it works to shore up revenues after quitting display ads in an attempt to build a new foundation on mobile-focused, performance based ads from SMBs.

What Consumers Expect from Mobile Retail Sites (eMarketer)
When it comes to a retailer’s mobile site, user reviews are the top feature that consumers expect to see, according to a recent survey. Additionally, 38 percent of internet users said they expected easy and direct customer support. That same percentage also counted on a mobile retail site having an automatic adaptation of screen size.

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