News and Analysis
Why Content Is Replacing Clicks as the Cornerstone of Digital Marketing
While the click-oriented advertising model is not going away and has its place, it is becoming more complicated with the influx of privacy changes that make targeting and measurement harder. As a result, VRTCAL Founder and President Todd Wooten makes the argument that content is king again.
Commentary
Lead Gen Spam: Bad for the Consumer, Bad for Business, and Bad for the Local Ecosystem
Blumenthal to Mihm, on lead gen spam: The real issue for me is that Google Maps is really like a public utility, and Google is not doing enough to protect the consumers of that product. There is significant harm in the deception of the consumer, the blocking out of legitimate businesses, and the possibility that the consumer public will lose trust in the whole, creaky house of cards.
The Blind Spot in Facebook’s Vision of Privacy
Insofar as Facebook’s pivot to privacy fails to reward its users for the data that has made it one of the world’s most powerful and profitable companies, I see it as a modest change that is more reactive than proactive, more inevitable than forward-thinking. It is likely that Facebook is only beginning to lay out its moves on privacy, and more ambitious changes may lie ahead. But for now, when it comes to the most pressing, fundamental ethical challenges that are inciting political fervor and increasing the likelihood that serious regulation of Big Tech is on the way, Zuckerberg is dragging his feet. With visionaries like Lanier and Zuboff raising public awareness about Facebook’s business model, the truth may just catch up with him.
Things Not Strings: Google’s New Hotel Profiles Exemplify Its Approach to Entities
Google’s Knowledge Graph ambitions are expanding to include obviating heavy reliance on secondary sources like Wikipedia and being able instead to classify and cross-reference information as a native, self-sustaining activity on web pages themselves. That’s what makes a recent patent filing different from the evidence of the Knowledge Graph we’ve already seen in the wild.
While this more ambitious way of surfacing information about entities is not yet standard, in researching Google’s new interface for hotels, I think I’m seeing evidence of a real-world example.
Latest Posts
How the End of Network Neutrality Could Affect SMBs and the Public Interest
For many years, the government’s assessment of the public interest was to encourage Web access to all. The current FCC, however, contends that this position is better met by eliminating the net neutrality rules — that SMBs will be able to have a variety of ISP options based on their actual needs with the end of the net neutrality rules.
Street Fight Daily: Uber Hid 2016 Data Breach from Users, Huge Ad Fraud Scheme Uncovered
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber Hid a 2016 Data Breach That Affected 57 Million People And Paid Off the Hackers… Fake-Ad Operation Used to Steal from Publishers Is Uncovered… The NYT Is Making All of Its Ads Available Programmatically…
Street Fight Daily: Chatting with SMBs on Messenger Booms, Good News for Brick-and-Mortars
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… 330 Million People Connected with SMBs via Messenger for First Time in 2017… Brick-and-Mortar Chains Put E-Commerce on Defensive for Once… Google Collects Android Users’ Location Data Even When Location Services Are Disabled…
How Facebook Turns ‘Likes’ Into Dollars Right Down to the Local Level
Local news publishers typically know many of their community restaurateurs on a first-name basis, and are regular diners at the establishments. But they can’t offer the precise targeting capability of Facebook, whose services are, in most cases, fully automated — greatly lowering their cost.
Why Commercial Banks Are Turning to Proximity Technology
That location intelligence firms are able to use foot traffic patterns to predict the financial performance of businesses is nothing new. But a new report released shines a light on the ways commercial banks and investment companies are upping the ante by using location data to get the most out of the market.
How Thanksgiving Day Store Closures Impact Black Friday Sales
Shoppers say they don’t want retailers opening their doors on Thanksgiving Day, but research from Foursquare tells a different story. Analyzing proprietary foot traffic data at major retailers, Foursquare found that stores that open earlier on Thanksgiving Day drive more visits and steal share from their competitors.
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