Street Fight Daily: Yelp Fights Companies Soliciting Reviews, Snap Reckons with Post-IPO Disaster

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

Yelp Increasingly Cracking Down on ‘Review Solicitation’ (Search Engine Land)
As reviews have become more important (to consumers and as a local ranking factor), multiple companies have emerged to monitor reviews, but also to help small business owners obtain them. Yelp is trying to stop many of those efforts.

JCPenney’s Outgoing Mobile Chief: Digital Integration Vital for Retail Brands (Street Fight)
“The most exhilarating thing about being in mobile is that it’s ever-changing. The traditional way of doing retail is dying; you have to reinvent yourself to stay relevant,” James Meeks, former head of mobile at JCPenney, told Street Fight.

­­Snapchat Is Having a Crisis of Confidence. So Are Investors (Bloomberg)
Parent company Snap Inc. on Tuesday turned in its third earnings report as a public company, and for the third time its shares tanked when both revenue and user growth were disappointing.

Local Marketing on Alexa? The Real Estate Industry Gives It a Shot (Street Fight)
Matt McGee: There are almost 40 real estate “skills” currently listed in Alexa’s directory. This is greater than those related to lawyers/attorneys, doctors/dentists, and a host of other SMB categories, and overall there doesn’t yet appear to be much adoption of voice technology at the local business level.

Postmates Launches Grocery Service, Scheduled Deliveries, and Revamped App (TechCrunch)
Postmates has always offered grocery delivery as part of its ethos of delivering anything to you within your city on-demand. Now, the company is taking a step further by baking in a grocery-specific service into its newly-revamped app.

Uber’s New Mantra: ‘We Do the Right Thing. Period.’ (NYT)
Dara Khosrowshahi has spent the past two months learning the ins and outs of Uber, the embattled ride-hailing company where he took over as chief executive in August. Now begins the hard work of repairing Uber’s negative image.

Pandora Is Pitching Brands Ad Targeting for Connected-Home Devices (AdWeek)
The Oakland, Calif.-based company is launching targeting that allows brands to zero in on audio ads served within the Pandora connected-home app, which is built into more than 2,000 devices such as Echo Sonos’ smart speakers and LG devices.

Amazon, Personalization, and the AI Effect (AdExchanger)
Jennifer Pelino: The Dot has quickly become an integral part of our lives. We can manage tasks quickly and easily by stating commands and driving actions to create more personalized and interactive experiences for even mundane tasks, such as grocery shopping.

Does DNAinfo’s Demise Sound Death Knell for Hyperlocal Websites? (Chicago Tribune)
Robert Reed: The fast and furious death of DNAinfo, part of a respected but unprofitable online neighborhood news operation, raises a nagging question: Can hyperlocal news sites ever really make it? By make it, I mean money.

Publishers Are Using Advertiser Trust Concerns to Their Advantage (Digiday)
Publishers are becoming more incentivized to share their first-party data more and give better inventory access. In exchange, advertisers are more likely to enable second-party data deals with publishers directly and feel more in control of budget waste.

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