News and Analysis

Demand Science Acquires Email Marketing Automation Startup Tidings

The B2B buyer intelligence platform Demand Science is acquiring the email marketing automation startup Tidings for an undisclosed sum. Tidings founder David Mihm will join Demand Science as VP, head of product, as part of the deal. Mihm, a Street Fight contributor, previously founded and sold GetListed.org to Moz in 2012. He is among the […]

Street Fight’s February Theme: Disrupting Retail

We’re focusing Street Fight’s February coverage on the tech disrupting retail. Curbside pickup, AR, and more are transforming retail as we head into 2021.

What is Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoCs)?

Federated Learning of Cohorts is a method Google has devised to track Internet users’ interests and serve them ads relevant to those interests. The method aims to be attentive to privacy by grouping thousands of users into these interest-based cohorts. Therefore, the thinking goes, users still see ads relevant to them, but ads less finely […]

Commentary

Newly Launched Block Club Chicago (Out of DNAinfo) Goes a ‘Bit Old School’

Last November, discount-stock-brokerage billionaire Joe Ricketts summarily shut down his DNAinfo operations in the Windy City and New York. But in a fast-paced reinvention, the DNAinfo/Chicago team has Kickstarted its way back onto the streets and into the neighborhoods with the June launch of Block Club Chicago.

LBMA Podcast: Facebook & L’Oréal, Pandora, GroundTruth & Technomic

On this week’s Location Based Marketing Association podcast: Facebook + L’Oreal, Pandora, GroundTruth + Technomic, Stasher, UgoRound, and Beam payments.

A Probing Look at Local News Comes to Some Disturbing Conclusions

To accurately gauge the quality of digital local news and assess its impact on communities, you would have to do what no one has wanted, or dared, to do. You would have to look at enough websites, enough stories and videos, in enough communities until you were glassy-eyed. Researchers behind a new study did just that.

Latest Posts

Could Chipotle Have Saved Millions of Dollars By Taking Online Reviews More Seriously?

If done right, online reputation management can act as an early warning system for multi-location businesses, and can ultimately prevent long-term brand damage and reduce the risk of decreasing profits.

7 Startups Decamp to the ‘Smartest Place in the World’ to Rethink Mobility

When machines around us communicate asynchronously in a meaningful way — in the service of the consumer — we’re likely to see some astounding outcomes. While the machines might not be chit-chatting with one another about the weather too soon, in Singapore it’s all being tried.

Street Fight Daily: Amazon Patents On-Demand Manufacturing Warehouses, Facebook’s Big F8 Reveals

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Awarded Patent for On-Demand Clothing Manufacturing Warehouse… Everything Facebook Announced at F8 2017… Malls Deploy Technology to Lure — and Keep — Shoppers…

A Look at Google’s ‘Quality Rater Guidelines’ Over Time: How to Put Information Into Action

Google is vague on a lot of things, but every now and then we get a glimpse into what the search giant values and deems important — as we do in the recently updated Quality Rater Guidelines.

TownNews’s ‘iQ Engage’ Sorts Through Signals to Help Publishers Keep Users Reading

TownNews.com has come up with a way for local publishers to cut their bounce rates — and the happy result is longer sessions and more click-throughs to advertising messages. That means more monetization for publishers and, ultimately, more users-turned-into-consumers buying products and services.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook at 10, Spotify Expands ‘Branded Moments’

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Marketers Still Struggle with Measurement, Attribution… Brands Can Now Target Spotify Playlists Ads Based on the Time of Day… Uber Confirms Ford Veteran Marakby is Leaving After One Year…

Frustration With Digital Marketing Vendors Boils Over for One SMB

If it’s possible to distill the 30 million small business owners in the U.S. into a single persona, Marc Reisner strikes our columnists as a great candidate: “Marc has been disillusioned by past performance and that poor performance has understandably tarred the entire industry with the same brush.”

7 Ways That Brands Can Make Chatbot Conversations More Authentic

Chatbots are transforming the customer experience and quickly moving into new sectors — but before marketers can expect conversation-mimicking software and artificial intelligence to replace live customer service representatives, they’ll need to find ways to overcome some consumer obstacles.

Street Fight Daily: Uber Opens Up On Finances, Walmart In Talks to Buy Bonobos

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber, Lifting Financial Veil, Says Sales Growth is Outpacing Losses… Walmart is in Advanced Talks to Acquire Online Men’s Retailer Bonobos… From ‘Zombie Malls’ to Bonobos: America’s Retail Transformation…

Street Culture: Why Telecommuting Makes Sense for Many Tech Startups

“If you have the right team, the right employees, then they don’t have to be there physically,” says Kristen Stiles, co-founder and CEO of babysitter-finding app Sitter.me. “If you don’t trust your employees to work at home, you shouldn’t have hired them in the first place.”