Factual CEO: Machine Learning Could Upend Local Search

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We sat down with Gil Elbaz, the chief executive at Factual who made his name building the technology behind AdSense, to talk about the future of search, what role Yelp may play in it, and why he thinks we machine learning will create a game changing product in the next 18 months…

Why a Former Gawker Editor Is Pushing Local News to National Audiences

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We recently caught up with Ratter founder A.J. Daulerio to talk about making local stories into national news, “building a tabloid about city while acknowledging the internet as the neighborhood,” and how he plans to avoid Patch’s missteps…

Street Fight Daily: Google Eyes Hotel Search, China’s New Ridesharing Monopoly

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Google’s Quiet Moves to Dominate Hotel Metasearch (Skift)… China Has A New Taxi App Monopolist – And It Isn’t Uber (Fortune)… How Do We Think about Location Once Location Is Everywhere? (Screenwerk)…

Street Fight Daily: Snapchat Tests Local, Yelp Sues Reputation Firm

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…… Snapchat Tries Our Stories For Locals Only (TechCrunch)… Yelp Sues Positive Review Provider Revleap (IT World)… Same-Day Delivery: Delivering Profits Or Just Parcels? (Forrester)..

Openings and New Hires at Goodzer, Foursquare and Street Fight

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Every two weeks, Kelly Benish — who knows practically everyone in hyperlocal — covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s edition, new jobs and hires at Amazon, Google, Where2GetIt and Street Fight…

LBMA Podcast: Factual Partners With Metadata, Thinknear Discusses Location Score Index

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On the show: Indoo.rs partners with KLM; Capital Radio + Outdoor Plus bring music to billboards in real time; Alibaba tests drone delivery; Wheely’s Cafe sells modern coffee carts; Sportsman Tracker is funded; Yahoo! + Flickr = Wetter; TripAdvisor buys ZeTrip; and PayPal invests in Pulsate….

Street Fight Daily: Lyft Eyes Big New Round, Groupon Sells Beacons

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Ride-Hailing Service Lyft Is Said to Be in Talks to Raise $250 Million (New York Times)… Expedia Buying Orbitz for $1.6 Billion (Skift)… Online-To-Offline Metrics Increasingly Available, Important To Marketers (Search Engine Land)…

Groupon Plans to Start Selling Beacons to Merchants

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The deals company announced solid fourth quarter earnings Thursday evening, finishing the year with gains in both revenue and gross billings. During the earnings call, CEO Eric Lefkofsky announced its latest project: a redemption system that uses beacons to allow merchants to track and communicate with Groupon customers in their stores…

Florists Hate Valentine’s Day — BloomNation Thinks It Can Change Their Mind

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Americans will spend $18.9 billion on flowers, candy and more for the holiday — but the spike in demand typically does not translate into big profits for small flower shops…

How Iowa’s Gazette Is Working to Make Deep-Dive Local Journalism Sustainable

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Display ads, even successfully targeted ones, aren’t likely to pay for the resources that go into The Gazette’s innovative journalism, where packages can take weeks or months to produce. As a result, sponsorships and memberships are the focus…

Street Fight Daily: Google’s New Payment Project, Real Estate’s Digital Decline

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Google Said To Be Testing A Point-of-sale System Called Plaso (GigaOm)… Borrell: Real Estate To Scale Back On Digital (NetNewCheck)… An Attribution Standard? IPG, Horizon, Digitas and Others Agree to Use One Firm (AdAge)…

Uber and Foursquare Co-Founders Lead $15M Investment in Dining App Reserve

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Expa, the startup accelerator founded by Uber co-founder Garrett Camp and Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai, has led a $15 million venture investment in Reserve. The round included a number of celebrity investors including actors Jon Favreau and Jared Leto as well as rapper Will.i.am…

Yelp Acquires Eat24, Bringing the Battle to GrubHub

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The company announced Tuesday it had acquired Eat24, a food ordering service, for $134 million in both cash and stock. The acquisition positions Yelp on a collision course with GrubHub, the online ordering firm that went public last year after merging with the New York-based Seamless.

5 Tools for Mobile Customer Service

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Catering to customer demand doesn’t have to mean scouring Twitter and Yelp for negative reviews all day long. Using one or more hyperlocal platforms, even the smallest merchants can introduce the types of mobile customer service channels their customers want. Here are five examples…

Street Fight Daily: Yelp Buys GrubHub Competitor, Facebook Eyes Craigslist

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Yelp Acquires Eat24, Bringing the Battle to GrubHub (Street Fight)… Facebook Update Looks a Lot Like Craigslist (Recode)… SMBs Divided On The Effectiveness Of Google My Business (Search Engine Land)…

Brands Ignoring Local Search Are ‘Kicking Away’ the Opportunity Google Is Giving Them

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Street Fight recently caught up with David Mihm, the director of local search strategy at Moz, to talk about the impact of Google’s latest local search update on multi-location brands, the state of local search’s shift to mobile, and what a rash of new vertical sites means for Google…

Street Fight Daily: Sidecar Takes On Instacart, Yelp Promises Hiring Spree

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Sidecar, a Ride-Hailing Start-Up, Pushes Into Package Delivery (New York Times)… Yelp Is Hiring A Bunch Of New Salespeople To Sell More Ads (Business Insider)… Groupon Founder Says Company Was A ‘Stupid, Boring Idea’ (The Week)…

7 M-Commerce Strategies for SMBs

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SMBs that don’t have mobile commerce enabled are practically inviting shoppers who can’t wait until they get home to make purchases to switch their business over to larger retail outlets. Here are seven m-commerce strategies from experts in the field…

Street Fight Daily: Google Launches ‘Local Guides,’ Ten Years of Google Maps

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Google Takes On Yelp Elites With Its New “Local Guides” Program (TechCrunch)… Ten Years of Google Maps, From Slashdot to Ground Truth (Recode)… How Apple’s iOS 8 Changes The Game For Brands And Retailers (Mobile Marketer)…

Community Publishers Mixed on Borrell Prescription for Content

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Gordon Borrell minced no words in Street Fight recently when he talked about content and audience in the revenue-hot digital space that his new annual local media report pinpoints. He said: “It’s so much not about readers. It’s so much more about consumers. So those folks who are trying to develop hyperlocal sites around good […]