News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: The Latest in On-SERP Search from Google, Visual Search on Edge of Breakthrough

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TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING AND MEDIA… Google and the On-SERP Experience: We’re Just Gettin’ Warmed Up… Retailers Must Prepare for Visual Search, On Edge of a Breakthrough… What Will Advertising on Voice Look/Sound Like?…

ThriveHive Upgrades Grader Product with Conversational UI, Brings David Mihm Aboard

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Just one month after ThriveHive released a product to help small business owners navigate the creation and maintenance of their Google My Business profiles, the company is making some substantial changes to its diagnostic solution.

Relevnt Aims to Integrate Local and Social Media on Community-Based Website

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Local and social media, produced by individuals and news sites alike, have a new place to hang out, and it’s called Relevnt. Launched late last year, the app “is like Yelp meets Reddit for social media,” said Winder Hughes, the company’s CEO and founder.

Commentary

Online Reviews Providing Insights That Help Brands Compete

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The evidence is in. Reviews on social media have a material impact on the capital investments made by nationwide brands. The key is strength in numbers: A national brand will be more likely to have the critical mass of reviews required in order to move beyond anecdotal evidence and glean statistically significant results.

Editor’s Take: The Perils of Uberization for the Local Economy

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On-demand is a convenient rubric for speaking about a certain type of currently faddish platform, but not every underlying service or product is the same. Transportation is not the same as home services or restaurants. By extension, not everything Uber does will work equally well outside of its particular niche. Demand-based pricing is a prime example.

Connecting the Local-Mobile Economy, One Step at a Time

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Hyperlocal, mobile, on-demand contextual commerce enabled by buy buttons within mobile apps — that’s the new string of buzzwords making the rounds at industry conferences. The market reality: It’s going to take a while for this string to play out in the connected local economy. A key reason is that even as mobile disrupts search, most marketers and merchants can’t expect to get their own app on a majority of users’ home screens.

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: Yelp’s Struggles Continue, New App Bizibid Wants to Boost Local Economies

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yelp Traffic Could Decline for the First Time Ever After Google Changed its Search Algorithm (Business Insider)… What Would Happen If Uber, Priceline, and Craigslist Had a Baby? (New York Observer)… Microsoft’s Tossup App Makes it Easier to Meet Your Friends for Lunch (The Verge)…

What Merchants Need to Know About Apple Pay and Loyalty Apps

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Having provided a window into the future of Apple Pay and Wallet, Apple recently left small businesses wondering about how to adapt their mobile strategies to stay competitive. Here’s how the changes could affect merchants.

Local News Sites Need More Than Funding — They Need Vision

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Community news vet Steven Waldman has produced “Report for America,” a brisk blueprint to save what he calls “civically important” news. But if publishers are really going to save local news, they should work on deepening their focus on the demographic shifts in their communities…

Street Fight Daily: Buy Buttons’ Impact, 7-Eleven Launches One-Hour Delivery

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… New, Simple ‘Buy’ Buttons Aim to Entice Mobile Shoppers (New York Times)… Twitter Introduces New Audience Insights for Brands (Twitter)… 7-Eleven Launches One-Hour Delivery in US (RetailWeek)…

Street Fight Daily: Yelp Sale Stalls, Twitter’s New Ads Button

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yelp Sale Process to Stall as Founder Decides to Wait (Bloomberg)… Twitter Pushes Ads With A New Button Atop Mobile Users’ Profiles (TechCrunch)… An Argument that Newspapers are Missing Out on Reaching Loyal, Local Digital Audiences (NiemanLab)…

Square Launches Payroll, Expanding Suite of Services for Small Businesses

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As part of its push to become a comprehensive platform for small businesses, Square has launched a new payroll management service. The product is targeted particularly at SMBs that pay employees on an hourly basis, but it can also be used for those that have salaried staff.

Openings & New Hires at Lyft, Yext, Twitter, Uber, Invoca & more

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In this week’s column, Twitter sees more high-level departures; Yext brings on a CMO from Salesforce; Lyft acquihires; Uber gets Bing employees; Invoca names a new CEO; and more. Find out what’s behind the moves…

LBMA Podcast: PayPal and Uber, Foursquare’s Mayor Mea Culpa

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On the show: tools, services and technologies that will make your summer vacation better – no babysitting included. Stories about: Google Photos; the KeepTrax app; Google’s Sidewalk Labs; Trending places on Instagram; Samsung’s safety truck; and the Space Case 1

Street Fight Daily: PayPal Acquires Xoom, ReachLocal Could Extend Yahoo Partnership

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… ReachLocal In Talks To Extend Yahoo Partnership Into Gemini Native Ads (Search Marketing Daily)… Zozi Raises $30 Million in Financing (New York Times)… Google Highlights Low Prices, Mimicking Amazon (Wall Street Journal)…

Labor Issues Aren’t the Only Hazard in Uber’s Business Model

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Uber-for-X innovators and investors be warned: several elements of Uber’s market inoculated it against three hazards associated with the single service model: Trigger Infrequency, Customer Loyalty, and Market Density.