News and Analysis
5 Privacy-Focused Mapping Solutions
Mainstream navigation apps like Google Maps and Waze seem to dominate the marketplace, but consumers who are interested in maintaining as much online privacy as possible have options to choose from, too.
Innovative mapping and navigation companies are launching new platforms with user privacy in mind. Framing themselves as the “private” alternative to general use navigation apps, these platforms collect minimal personal data from users and often work without tracking user locations.
Here are five examples of privacy-focused mapping platforms.
California’s Gig Economy Bill Becomes Law
The landmark California gig economy bill that may force companies such as Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash that employ thousands of drivers as independent contractors to hire those people as employees became law today. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill.
If the bill does ultimately affect Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and other companies in the so-called gig economy thriving on venture capital for the last decade, it will severely disrupt their business models, which rely on cheap labor.
Constant Contact Expands Beyond Email, Adds Website Builder for SMBs
Constant Contact, known for its email marketing platform, is expanding to offer an AI-driven website builder as well as tools for branding, productivity, and e-commerce. It’s the first major expansion for Constant Contact since its acquisition by Endurance International Group.
The company’s new website builder is specifically designed for SMB owners and operators without the time or expertise typically required to build an effective site from scratch. Constant Contact claims sites can be created in minutes.
Commentary
Cutting Through the Crowds at Festivals: How Brands Can Reach Summer Groupies
When fans use their mobile phones to travel to or around a festival, or when contacting their friends on-site, they’re giving brands valuable information about where they are and what they like. And if advertisers know how to capitalize on this data, they’ll be able to identify and reach their ideal audiences.
Latest Posts
#SFSW16 VIDEO: The Virtual Reality Revolution and Its Implications for Local
With the rise of Oculus and a host of other new companies, there has been lots of talk this year about the potential local and retail implications for virtual reality and augmented reality. At Street Fight Summit West in San Francisco earlier this month, a panel examined how brands and retailers see the VR/AR opportunity.
Your Local Broadcast: Centric Finds the Cameras in Your Neighborhood
The new service is a video discovery app and broadcasting platform that enable users to browse, view and interact with video that’s being shared around them. “It’s like being handed a new map to your neighborhood that has all sorts of stuff you didn’t know existed before,” said CEO Vincent Gibson.
#SFSW16 VIDEO: How On-Demand Is Changing the Way Brick-and-Mortar Businesses Compete With Ecommerce
While ecommerce companies have doubled down on taking their chunks out of the local pie, some on-demand services are trying to find ways to use their immediacy to help brick-and-mortar businesses fight back. At Street Fight Summit West earlier this month, a panel looked at this tension between ecommerce and brick-and-mortar.
Street Fight Daily: The Voice Search Explosion, Publishers Tap Into Location-Based Programmatic
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Even Facebook Can’t Just Waltz Into the Location Data Space… How the Voice Search Explosion Will Change Local Search… Condé Nast, The New York Times, and Forbes Tap Into Location-Based Programmatic Platform…
#SFSW16 VIDEO: Rethinking Restaurants — Local Tech Remakes an Industry
Restaurants are a particularly large and important vertical in local, and as such they’ve long been a testing ground for a variety of digital products. Now a new generation of companies is starting to use local marketing and delivery services to rethink what a restaurant is and how we think about our dining experiences.
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