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
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.”
Are We on the Brink of a Retail Revolution?
Revolutions often happen over short periods of time and leave death and carnage in their wake. What we are experiencing today in retail is more of an evolution — a sort of “survival of the fittest” as both local and big brand retailers either embrace shifting consumer shopping patterns or face extinction.
Latest Posts
Sponsored Post: How a Digital Agency is Key to SMB Marketing Success
Sometimes local marketing moves to the back burner. The marketing industry moves quickly, and it’s often difficult to keep up with the shifts in consumer behavior, spending, technology, and effectiveness. Fifty-three percent of marketers admit that their primary challenge is the lack of resources and bandwidth needed to stay on top of localization strategies…
Street Fight Daily: Uber Taking Bids for Its Cloud Business, Google Launches Local News Tag
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Launches Local Source Tag to Help You See More Local News… Amazon to Launch a Blue Apron-Like Recipe Delivery Service This Fall… Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Might Be Going to War Over Uber’s Cloud Business…
Spring Brand Battle: Jackson Hewitt vs. Liberty Tax
Spring’s Brand Battle was the closest one yet with a spread of just four points overall. Local advertising and SEO strategies called the winner this month, and the losing contender would have had a better chance of overtaking its competition with more focus in those areas. Find out whether Jackson Hewitt or Liberty Tax Service earned a better return on local advertising effort!
Street Fight Daily: New York Times Enters Food Delivery, Yelp’s Plans for Growth
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… New York Times Goes for Literal Snackable Content with Meal Delivery (Mashable)… More Than 146 Million People Have Used Yelp This Year (Eater)… Drawbridge Raises $25M As It Takes Its Cross-Device Tech Beyond Advertising (TechCrunch)…
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Beyond Search: AI Visibility the New Growth Lever for MULO Brands