Street Fight Daily: Uber Redesigns App to Facilitate Location-Sharing, Yext Launches Developer Platform

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

Uber Redesigns App to Streamline Ride Ordering, Facilitate Location-Sharing (The Verge)
Uber is rolling out a major redesign of its app — the most significant update since 2012. The changes, which are only for users and not drivers, are supposed to offer a much cleaner interface, less confusion around which service to request, and shortcut options to frequent destinations.

Reimagining the Mobile Banner: In-app Ad Innovation Spares Brands from Google’s Interstitial Pinch (Street Fight)
Walter Geer: The future of our work is about designing smarter ways to reach users, so we need to focus on ways to drive engagement, not distraction. And that means finding subtle things that trigger the meaningful interactions. This isn’t 1999; we’re not building banners for last century’s desktop.

Yext Launches a Developer Platform for Its Location Database Technology (TechCrunch)
Yext currently serves as probably the largest database of location data for businesses and other venues around the world. Up until now, all of that data has largely been for the use of Yext. But now the company is opening up that database to developers working with its partners.

At Hearst Newspapers, a New Digital Strategy to End ‘Flying Blind’ (Street Fight)
Tom Grubisich: Just how far local newspapers have to go to plant their flag commandingly in the fiercely competitive world of digital is summed up in a revealing story told by Robertson (Rob) Barrett, the new digital chief at Hearst Newspapers, who says that editors just don’t have information about the interests of the people in their market.

Facebook Shares Sink as Company Announces Ad Revenue Growth Likely to Slow (Business Insider)
Facebook reported another blowout quarter on Wednesday as the company’s advertising revenue and audience continued to expand well ahead of expectations. But shares sunk more than 8% in after hours trading after the company cautioned that spending will grow in 2017 and said that the News Feed is nearly fully saturated with ads. Recode: The Impact of Google and Facebook’s Success on Other Digital Advertisers

How Pokémon Go Is Changing Consumer Attitudes Toward Location Services (eMarketer)
The benefit of location sharing is clear with navigation apps, but that hasn’t been the case with other app types. Recently, though, a handful of apps have changed consumers’ perception about disclosing their whereabouts.

WSJ Joins Gannett, NYT in Cutting Down Staff (Poynter)
America’s business newspaper of record is cutting its staff today, part of an effort to streamline its newsroom during an industry-wide print advertising slump. The Wall Street Journal is not alone in shedding staff, with similar moves being undertaken by companies including The New York Times and Gannett.

Google Home Beats Amazon Echo & Alexa, For Answering Questions (Search Engine Land)
Danny Sullivan: Google has a winner with Google Home, for those who want a hands-free assistant that can answer a broad range of questions that come up during day-to-day activities in the house. It easily beats what Amazon Echo can do.

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Joe Zappa is the Managing Editor of Street Fight. He has spearheaded the newsroom's editorial operations since 2018. Joe is an ad/martech veteran who has covered the space since 2015. You can contact him at [email protected]