News and Analysis
Who’s Using Local AR? And How Often?
According to a recent survey, AR users like what they see, with a whopping 73% reporting high or very high satisfaction. But non-users report explicit disinterest, with the biggest reason being the rather daunting “just not interested.” This presents a big hill for AR app developers to climb.
Commentary
Selling Local Is Hard — Here’s What You Need to Do to Make It Work
For the past couple of months I’ve been testing a new targeted local online advertising product as part of my fellowship project at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute.The test has been essentially to sell the product to regional businesses within a given market. And at the end of the two-month trial, after calling on more than 150 businesses multiple times, I have a much greater appreciation not only for local salespeople but for the brands in the marketplace that can sell local…
What We Mean When We Talk About ‘Hyperlocal’
When we launched Street Fight, we expanded the term “hyperlocal” from its traditional use pertaining only to passionate, driven, highly local publishers who were the first to act on the erosion of local media’s business. We have applied it to include anyone who is disrupting and taking market share from traditional media and offering local businesses new ways to reach consumers…
The Local Conundrum: Rich Content or Accurate Information?
Google may have thought that situating local within Google+ would somehow obviate the need to fix it, but the presence of engaging content does nothing to modify the basic requirement that information services provide useful information. Perversely, information services spend too much time pretending they are content services but offer none of the openness of those services where it’s really needed…
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Facebook ‘Moves’ Privacy Policy, Nokia Invests in Connected Car
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… After Facebook Deal, Moves App Changes Privacy Policy (Wall Street Journal)… Nokia Joins Musk to Google in Investing in Intelligent Cars (Bloomberg)… Retailers Look to Merge Offline and Online Shopping Experiences in 2014 (eMarketer)…
Shopify CPO: Next 5 Years Will Be More Exciting for Retail Than Previous 150
This May, Street Fight will take a look at the companies, technologies and ideas that are shaping the way we buy and sell goods in the real-world. To kick-off the series, we caught up with Harley Finkelstein, chief platform officer at Shopify, to discuss the blurring line between e- and local commerce…
Facebook’s Path to Dominating Mobile (Local TBD)
Facebook Audience Network will apply Facebook’s audience targeting to third party apps, such as those using Facebook Connect for log-in authentication. The beauty of such an off-site network is that it uses Facebook’s data and positioning to continue milking demand for mobile ads, without killing the cow…
Street Fight Daily: PayPal’s Agrawal Departs, Google Expands Shopping Service
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… PayPal’s Strategy Exec: I Quit Before Twitter Tirade (Recode)… Google Shopping Express Comes to NYC, L.A. (USA Today)… Rare Yelp Lawsuit Over Alleged Fake Reviews is Put on Hold to Debate Merits (Ars Technica)…
In Foursquare’s ‘Unbundling,’ Does the Tail Wag the Dog?
Foursquare announced plans Thursday to spin off the company’s trademark social networking service into a separate app and focus its branded application entirely on local search and discovery. The move — what the company has called ‘the unbundling’ — represents a pivotal adjustment by Foursquare to the sensitivities of a mainstream consumer in an increasingly connected real-world experience…
Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Splits App, Groupon Goes After Costco
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Meet Swarm: Foursquare’s ambitious plan to split its app in two (Verge)… Groupon Goes After Costco And Sam’s Club With Groupon Basics, A Portal For Home Goods (TechCrunch)… Uber Gears up to Launch ‘Uber Family’ Service & Eyes a New Batch of Cities (VentureBeat)…
What Roadside Assistance Can Tell Us About the Future of Local Search
Urgently, a Washington D.C. startup, has built an application that allows drivers to request, and pay for, a nearby tow truck or automotive technician, and then track the provider as they come to their destination. The service is one of handful new companies, which are working to apply the on-demand model developed by the taxi hailing company Uber to a range of traditionally offline, and often backwater industries, like repair.
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