News and Analysis

Report: 34% of Ad Impressions Placed on Low-Quality Sites

Share this:

Reputable brands have pushed back hard against having their ads appear alongside content that goes against their values—for example, advertising running alongside articles or videos about how to complete the Tide PODS challenge—but Gartner L2’s research shows that the pushback hasn’t been effective enough, and the industry still has work to do.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Releases Slew of Local Features, Here Challenges Google Maps

Share this:

TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING… Facebook Announces Slew of Changes to Boost Local Businesses… Here Attacks Google Maps with New Freemium Website Plan… Alexa Users Are Reportedly Not Buying Anything with Their Voice…

5 Things to Know About Amazon’s Fast-Growing Ad Biz

Share this:

Search “Amazon advertising,” and the first webpage you’ll find comes from the e-commerce giant itself. The pitch? In a phrase: “Reach millions of customers who find, discover, and buy at Amazon.” It doesn’t get much more compelling than that. Here are five things you need to know about the most legitimate challenge to Google and Facebook’s digital ad dominance. 

Commentary

How the Local Web Is Helping Neighbors Connect and Build Community

Share this:

We are at the cusp of being able to solve the “last mile” problem, largely because with mobile devices we are nearing 100% access and interoperability. There are three key areas where we can make a big difference, right in our local community, with the types of information available to enrich our local lives: government; commerce and community…

Why ‘Google My Business’ Helps, But Doesn’t Fix, Local for SMBs

Share this:

The company’s redesign of its SMB portal replaces both the old Google Places for Business interface and the equivalent within Google+, and consolidates several features into a friendlier interface. The features for the most part are not new, but the update does a good job of tying together the claiming and profile management process with Google+ sharing…

Mobile’s Increasingly Strong Influence in Consumer Purchase Decisions

Share this:

The third annual installment of the xAd/Telmetrics Mobile Path-to-Purchase study shows that mobile is a powerful force throughout the consumer purchase cycle. Consumers are spending more research time on their mobile devices than on their PCs, and more than one-third of mobile users use their devices exclusively to research purchases…

Latest Posts

Will 2015 Be Breakthrough Year for Community News?

Share this:

We saw some promising signs of local news sites getting their mojo in 2014. But is it a lasting, growing trend? To get a peek over the horizon, we went to top experts in community news — publishers, editors and others who are involved in producing, analyzing and critiquing it…

Street Fight Daily: Pinterest Opens Advertising, Goldman Eyes Groupon’s Korean Site

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology……Pinterest Will Open Promoted Pins To All Advertisers Following Success Of Beta Program (TechCrunch)… Goldman Wants In On Groupon’s Ticketmonster Deal (Crain’s Chicago Business)… Goldman Wants In On Groupon’s Ticketmonster Deal (Crain’s Chicago Business)… In Advertising, It’s About Who Gets Credit for the Sale (New York Times)…

7 Ways Merchants Can Help Shoppers Find Their Stores

Share this:

Half of consumers say they have looked up merchant information online and ended up at a business that was closed. To avoid these negative experiences, it’s important that merchants do everything possible to ensure shoppers are finding accurate information when they search online…

LBMA Podcast: Factual’s Dashboards, Foursquare/Twitter

Share this:

On the show: State Farm helps identify cars; StreetPong while you wait to cross; Real-time trading platforms from Lamar and Posterscope; get into orbit with PocketQube; Scandic brings the hotel room to you…

On Street Fight: Facebook’s Video Pages, Food Tech’s Dilemma

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyFacebook Challenges YouTube Channels With New Features For Pages (TechCrunch)… The Greasy Underpan Of Restaurant Tech (TechCrunch)… Have Online Payments Become Safer Than Offline? (Wired)…

5 Keys to Small Business Success From 2014

Share this:

Given all the hyperlocal solutions aimed at small businesses, it’s no wonder merchants took a varied approach in 2014. Over the past year, merchants have become savvier about online marketing solutions, and as a result, many are now willing to try platforms they would not have been comfortable using in previous years…

Street Fight Daily: TripAdvisor Fined in Italy, Uber CEO Indicted in Korea

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…TripAdvisor Fined $610,000 in Italy for Failing to Prevent Fake Reviews (New York Times)… South Korea Charges Uber CEO With Breaking Transport Law (Recode)… How The Digital Wallet Will Drive Mobile Commerce in 2015 (ReadWrite)…

Here Are the Top 5 Exits in Local Tech of 2014

Share this:

The largest deals came on the public market, where some of the more established firms found late exits and others teamed up with rivals. But the startup scene saw its share of healthy M&A activity as well. Here are the five biggest deals in the local tech of 2014….

The Year in Local Search: A Timeline of the Top Stories of 2014

Share this:

The holiday season is a time to contemplate the year gone by, so we’ve rounded up some of the top news stories in local search over the past 12 months. It was a year marked by Foursquare’s rebranding, Google’s new SMB interface, and upgrades from the likes of Apple, Yelp, Yahoo, YP, MapQuest, and Bing…

Street Fight Daily: Starbucks Drops Square, Uber to Patent Surge Pricing

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…starbucks_square-2Starbucks Drops Square App as Mobile-Payments Battle Intensifies (WSJ)… Uber Moves to Patent the Surge Pricing Its Customers Hate (Skift)… Google Gains Ground on Amazon With Same-Day Deliveries During Holiday (AdAge)