Street Fight Daily: Google May Make Billions on Maps’ Local Ads, Uber IPO Coming No Time Soon
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
Thanks to Local Ads, Google Maps Could Produce $1.5 Billion in New Revenue (Business Insider)
Google recently announced new types of ads within Maps that analysts at Morgan Stanley believe could help the business deliver $1.5 billion in incremental revenue in 2017. The new Promoted Pins ads in Google Maps nudge people into visiting businesses, like restaurants or gas stations, that appear along their route. Google is also rolling out other new local search features.
Picking the Locksmiths: Bizyhood Unlocks the Ghosts in the Data Problem (Street Fight)
Rick Robinson: What would you do if you wanted to game Google into thinking you’ve got a vast network of local shops servicing area customers based on their search queries? According to a recent New York Times article, some lead gen companies are creating thousands of ghost listings to achieve just this. Bizyhood is trying to combat the practice.
Uber CEO Says Company Will Go Public ‘As Late As Humanly Possible’ (Business Insider)
Uber expects to go public at some point within the next one to 10 years, according to the company’s CEO, Travis Kalanick, who says he plans to leave it as late as possible. The company, which isn’t currently profitable, has been able to resist an IPO by raising $12.5 billion (£8.6 billion) from venture capital investors and large corporates. But Uber ultimately plans to carry out a stock market listing.
Scaling the Neighborhood: A Community Focus for Local Businesses (Street Fight)
Damian Rollison: So far, digital services, even those focused on local, have done more to atomize local communities than unite them, training us to rely on anonymous resources for the information and recommendations we used to get from our friends and neighbors.
The Bezos Effect: How Amazon’s Founder is Reinventing The Washington Post (Shorenstein Center)
A new paper provides insight into The Washington Post’s digital strategy and business model following its acquisition by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. Many of the strategies Bezos is pursuing are applicable to any newspaper, the paper notes: Invest in journalism and technology, seek out both large-scale and elite audiences, and maintain a relentless focus on building the size of the digital audience. Wall Street Journal: Washington Post finds new revenue stream in CMS.
AmazonFresh Launches in London Today (TechCrunch)
AmazonFresh, the e-commerce behemoth’s grocery service, will start operating in parts of north and east London today. Deliveries will first be available in 69 postcodes before expanding to other parts of the city.
Yahoo Offering More Than 3,000 Patents Amid Strategic Reviews (Bloomberg)
Yahoo is exploring the sale of more than 3,000 patents as part of an effort begun earlier this year to look into ways to monetize its intellectual property. The company has extended efforts on the divestiture of patents and pending patents held by its Excalibur LLC unit that include search, advertising and cloud-based technology, the company said in an e-mailed statement.
Two Tried and True Methods to Make Social Media Impact SEO (Search Engine Land)
Dan Bagby: While social signals may not be directly factored into Google’s ranking algorithm, social media can still be used to enhance SEO. Many brands use social media to build a brand, deliver great customer service or develop relationships; small businesses can do the same.
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