News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: Highlights from Street Fight Summit, Advertisers Drop DSPs to Cut Costs

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… #SFSNYC: The Growing Power of SMB OS… #SFSNYC: Investors on Billion-Dollar Opportunities in Local and Where to Find Them… Advertisers Cut DSPs 40% Over Two Years…

#SFSNYC: Moving Beyond Basic Location-Based Advertising Without Getting Creepy

In regard to guidelines pertaining to the ethical use of location data, Mark Risis, head of global data partnerships at IBM Watson, offered the following maxim: “Don’t do creepy stuff.” Risis as well as panelists from Zocdoc and Waze addressed the topic of location-based marketing and ethics in a panel at Street Fight Summit Wednesday.

#SFSNYC: UPS, TripAdvisor, and HappyOrNot Break Down Divergent Approaches to Customer Feedback

Consumer feedback and brands have a complex and sometimes contentious relationship. Three panelists from companies with starkly different relationships to both their customers and the customer feedback process provided their angles on the issue at Street Fight Summit in New York Wednesday.

Commentary

What SMBs Need to Know About Facebook’s News Feed Redesign

In the hopes of creating a better user experience (and ultimately more monetization opportunities), Facebook recently overhauled the design and functionality of its news feed — aiming to become the “personalized newspaper” of the digital age. The redesigned layout will include bigger photos, maps and news articles and users can now sort through feeds based on interests — so SMBs currently managing a page should definitely adjust the way they approach their Facebook marketing and creative strategy…

Overlaying Local: Do We Want Listings in Context?

Maponics is working on an initiative that includes overlays of demographics and what they call “lifestyle data” on top of maps. The idea is to create a value-added component to traditional maps that may help to bring primary mapping information into a meaningful context for users…

Why Local Online Publishers Should Also Be Designing Merchants’ Sites

One of the most sustainable sources of income for local digital publishers ought to be web design and hosting for their local customers. Web design and hosting has counted for 20% of my company’s total annual revenue for the last five years. It’s a natural fit for publishers in so many ways, and yet I see very few who offer it. They’re missing out big time…

Latest Posts

6 Tools for Gathering Insight from Digital Customer Interactions

A lack of time and knowledge are two factors that explain why business owners don’t take a more active role in monitoring how they’re perceived online. However, a number of hyperlocal platforms are now aiming to streamline that process by giving small businesses access to advanced marketing automation tools and analytics suites that were once reserved for national brands and agencies. Here are six platforms that businesses can use to gather insight from online customer interactions…

Street Fight Daily: Square Adds Loans, Foursquare Declares Search Broken (Again)

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologySquare Expands into Small Business Loans (Financial Times)… Foursquare Declares Local Search (Yelp And Google) Broken, Vows Fix With Personalization (TechCrunch)… The FTC Condemns the Data Brokerage Industry’s Collection Practices (Pando)…

Why Airbnb Is Interested in Local Search

Over the past few years, Airbnb has quietly pushed to bring the sense of authenticity implicit in apartment sharing beyond the walls of the host’s home. Street Fight recently caught up with Lenny Rachitsky, a product manager at Airbnb and previously the founder of Localmind, to talk about the role of local discovery in Airbnb’s product…

Syndicated Commerce: Bridging the Gap Between Content and Commerce

When done right, ecommerce is one of the most lucrative options for publishers challenged not just with creating compelling content, but also with generating revenue through content-based display advertising. The publishers who adapt to the trends of ecommerce will thrive and become leaders in the new economy. Those who don’t will become unsustainable and disappear…

5 Ways Hyperlocal Technology Can Save Malls from Extinction

Given their position in the marketplace, hyperlocal vendors are uniquely able to help physical stores fight back against the changing tide. By using features like geo-targeting, indoor tracking, and mobile messaging, brick-and-mortar retailers can band together and increase their chances of survival. Here are five ways that hyperlocal technology can potentially save shopping malls from extinction…

Street Fight Daily: Intuit’s Buying Spree Continues, Google Eyes Skybox

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyIntuit to Buy Bill-Payment Service Check Inc. for $360 Million (Wall Street Journal)… Google Close To Snapping Up Satellite Startup Skybox Imaging For $1B+, Say Sources (TechCrunch)… Investor Talk on Uber’s Valuation Hits as High as $17 Billion (Wall Street Journal)…

Watch Out Yelp and Foursquare — Facebook Starts Flexing Its Local Muscles Again

During a presentation at Internet Week in New York on Thursday, Justin Moore, an engineering manager at Facebook, offered a full-throated pitch for the company’s local data initiatives. Moore, a former Foursquare engineer who joined Facebook in early 2012, says a team in the company’s New York office has spent the past two years turning the 32 billion pieces of location-tagged content, which have been created on the social network, into a sprawling database of places that spans the globe…

Openings and New Hires at Telmetrics, OPA, Square, and Pro.com

Every two weeks, Search Influence’s Kelly Benish — who knows practically everyone in hyperlocal — covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s edition, new hires and jobs at PayPal, Signpost, Search Influence, Angie’s List, LiveIntent, hibu and more …

LBMA Podcast: Indoor Location Tech at Waitrose, Motorola’s New MPact

Top stories of the week include the British Navy & quantum positioning; Freedom Telecare’s PunchPrompt; the Gap’s #summerloves campaign; Square’s shift in focus from Wallet to Order; SinglePoint & Drive Media Network; WhatsAppleBees, an anonymous social network for Applebees patrons; MonkeyParking App; and Starwood Hotels’ Google Glass App…

Street Fight Daily: Uber Eyes $12B Valuation, Facebook Adds Menus

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyUber Discusses Investment at $12 Billion Valuation (Wall Street Journal)… Facebook Lets Restaurants Post Menus to Their Pages (Mashable)… TripAdvisor Begins Using Its Own Restaurant Reservations Tool In Challenge to OpenTable and Yelp (Skift)…