Street Fight Daily: Location to Power Local Google Search, Square Turns to Large Businesses

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

Google to Use Location Data as Primary Factor for Local Search Results (MediaPost)
Localized search results now live in the phone. Google ditched top-level domain (TLD) names such as Google.co.uk for England or Google.ng for Nigeria as a trigger to serve local data in search results, and will now rely on location-based triggers from the mobile phone to serve up local search query results.

How to Visualize Cause and Effect in Local Brand Marketing (Street Fight)
Mark Stouse, CEO and co-founder of Proof Analytics, says there are ways for chief marketing officers to gird themselves in case of market downturns by using data to support their value to the businesses they serve. This is especially critical, he says given the growing control over tech spending that CMOs now command.

Square Announces the Register, a $999 POS Device for Larger Businesses (TechCrunch)
CEO Jack Dorsey said the Register is meant to address concerns from larger sellers using Square or considering using it. For one thing, he said some businesses felt the Stand was “very consumer-focused,” so they wanted something “more professional.”

Why Selling Higher-End Brands Gives Walmart a Fighting Chance Against Amazon (Digiday)
Ilyse Liffreing: Since its creation, Walmart has been a discount retailer that serves middle- and lower-income consumers. Yet the company’s future might depend on affluent consumers.

Facebook Leads Competitors for Last-Click Social Commerce (eMarketer)
The vast majority of social commerce buyers are making their purchases from Facebook, according to new research from Open Influence.

Millennials Care More About TV (And Its Ads) Than YouTube (AdWeek)
Broadcast ratings are down double-digits this fall, but a new report from the Video Advertising Bureau says broadcast and cable TV—and not YouTube, Facebook or streaming services like Netflix—are still by far the best way for brands to reach audiences, particularly millennials.

Waymo Showcases Driverless Vans Without Humans Behind the Wheel (WSJ)
Waymo LLC, the driverless-car unit of Google-parent Alphabet Inc., demonstrated Monday what traveling in its minivans might be like as a fully autonomous ride-hailing service.

Are There Already 56M Amazon Alexa, Google Home Devices in the US? (LSA Insider)
Greg Sterling: A March survey found that about 23% of respondents owned one of these devices. If the results can be generalized to the larger US adult population (roughly 244 million) then we be looking at something like 56 million units in people’s homes today. I suspect that number is too large. But this is why I say the projected 30 million is probably low.

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