News and Analysis
Google Being Investigated for Antitrust Violations by Slew of States
More than half of US state attorneys general are investigating Google for antitrust violations, the Washington Post reported. Officials anonymously told the Post that the probes are expected to be announced on Monday.
This marks a serious escalation in mostly recent government efforts to increase regulation of the giant tech firms that have become the most powerful private enterprises in the world, squashing competition in their home industries and disrupting adjacent ones. The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission are already looking into the potentially anticompetitive power of Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple.
Klos Founders See Opportunity in Social Messaging Market
Like so many other startups, Klos is being marketed as a solution to a problem. In this case, the company’s founders see the problem as social media being inherently anti-social. Original broadcast sharing on legacy social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn is on the decline. Messaging services like WhatsApp and iMessage are incredibly popular, but they don’t help people expand their social networks. While there are existing services, like Tinder and Bumble, that combine messaging and network expansion, they almost all fall into the dating app category.
A Return to Contextual Advertising?
Digital advertising and marketing have long been positioned as “the future” of advertising. But with the rapid changes in media and information technology of the past two decades, the future has arrived. Google recently promoted the idea that “we’re now in an era where digital marketing is just marketing.” But as the industry advances and as new protective regulations around personal data privacy are introduced, it’s also possible that some of the change could involve relying more on previously established methods. Specifically, it is possible that we are on the verge of a return to contextual advertising as the dominant form of online ads.
Commentary
Parsing Google Fred and Other Quality Updates: How to Prepare or Recover
If you are involved in any form of SEO, you know how daunting it can be to keep up with Google algorithm updates. From the Mobile First Index to the Owl update to Google Fred, the tide is always shifting. It is important to step back a moment and take a look at what Google is trying to do.
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Street Fight Daily: Google May Make Billions on Maps’ Local Ads, Uber IPO Coming No Time Soon
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Thanks to Local Ads, Google Maps Could Produce $1.5 Billion in New Revenue… Uber CEO Says Company Will Go Public ‘As Late As Humanly Possible’… The Bezos Effect: How Amazon’s Founder is Reinventing The Washington Post…
#SFSW16: Location Solves Data Glut Says HERE Exec
Goubert says one of the biggest questions that comes up when people start talking about data is, is more always better? “We all love data because we think data is the oil of the next industry,” he said. “We all want more.” But collecting data for the sake of collecting data is a common mistake, and Goubert said the first step in solving most big data dilemmas is to add a location angle…
#SFSW16: Loyalty is Back, and It’s Big, But It’s Not Cutting-Edge
“The premise of our business is that in the past you walk into your local business and everybody knows who you are. It is a very familial relational space,” Ho said. “Our goal is to help these business owners treat every single [customer] as a unique individual. Not long from now it’s either going to be like Minority Report or like Cheers. We want it to be like Cheers.”…
#SFSW16: YP’s Biggest Competitor? SMBs’ ‘Guy’
Fragmentation is changing the local marketing industry, with smaller sellers encroaching on a space that was once reserved for large national agencies. At Street Fight Summit West, YP CEO David Krantz said the influx of competition is making it tougher to sell bigger advertising services.
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The Road Ahead: What Autonomous Cars Teach Us About Marketing Automation