News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: Brands Demand Video Strategies, Scandal Doesn’t Affect Facebook Use
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Selling to Multi-Location Brands: Streaming Video Is On the Rise… Poll: Three-Quarters Facebook Users as Active or More Since Scandal… Volvo Cars to Come With Google Assistant, Maps Built In…
SMB Index: Local Stocks See Solid Gains in April
April marked another volatile month in the public markets. But it was a relatively strong month for local stocks, as the SurePath SMB Index was up 2.8% in April, topping all major indices.
Street Fight Daily: How Agencies Can Adapt to SEO Market Changes, Amazon Preps Alexa for Brands
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The Bifurcation of the Local SEO Services Market… Amazon Is Finally Cashing in on Alexa… Facebook Weighs Ad-Free Subscription Model…
Commentary
Apple Maps: Taking the Long View
There’s no dancing around the fact that the much-anticipated launch of Apple Maps has turned into a fiasco for the company. Yet there’s little doubt Apple will buff out this particular blemish with time. The interesting part will be seeing exactly how the company chooses to address the gap in expertise that led to the current sub-par product. A big acquisition of talent or technology seems likely…
iOS6: Can Google Beat Apple in its Own Backyard?
Mapping is a game ultimately won on function rather than form. This requires lots of listings data and search algorithms; in other words, things that are non-core to Apple. Relative to Google’s tenure in this area, Apple is only starting to stitch together local vertical content partners like Yelp and TomTom. And it’s already starting to show…
BxB Recap: Is This the Future of Local News?
The passion with the group at Block by Block isn’t just about great journalism — it’s about turning online journalism into a business; it’s about leveraging existing tools and creating new ones; and most importantly it’s about working to collaboratively across these businesses to make an impact…
Latest Posts
Why Data May Kill Content as the Key to Local Relevancy
During a keynote at Street Fight’s Local Data Summit in Denver Tuesday, Carol Davidsen, chief executive at Cir.cl and a former Obama for America staffer, spoke about the way the campaign used data to avoid pricey local news buys, and how those learnings are shaping the way companies in the private market buy media…
Inventory Data Could Help Turn The Tide for Brick-and-Mortar Retailers
The rapid growth of Amazon, and the high-profile decline of brick-and-mortar retailers like Borders, masks a surprising statistic: e-commerce makes up only 5-10% of total retail sales in the country. During a panel at Street Fight’s Local Data Summit in Denver Tuesday, panelist argued that bringing inventory data online could provide small, brick-and-mortar stores with an advantage over their online-only competitors…
Charting Consumer Behavior In the Real World
At Street Fight’s Local Data Summit on Tuesday, LocalSEOGuide proprietor Andrew Shotland started off a morning panel discussion on charting consumer behavior in the real world by asking panelists how close the local data industry is to being able to collect and aggregate the location of consumers, and then sell that information directly to marketers…
#LDS14 As New Sensors Emerge, Risks and Rewards in Location Data
The bulk of location data may come from smartphone’s today, but a new wave of sensors could open up a range of new possibilities for developers and businesses to interact with consumers a given place. During a panel at Street Fight’s Local Data Sumit in Denver Tuesday, speakers from Intel, Qualcomm, and KS Technologies discussed the way chip-level innovations are driving the local tech space, and how new sensors could open up a flood of consumer location data.
How Esri’s Amber Case Plans to Make Technology Invisible
At the Street Fight Local Data Summit in Denver on Tuesday, Esri R&D Director Amber Case spoke about ‘calm technology’ and the future of location data. Case, who sold her startup Geoloqi to Esri in 2012, argued that mobile data should empower people and bring meaning to their lives by making interactions invisible…
Study: Only 13% of Small Businesses Invest in Reviews
Small business owners are underestimating the importance of online reviews — negatively influencing their communication with customers as a result, according to a new survey conducted by local marketing provider Yodle. Only 13 percent of small business owners said they actively pursued online reviews from their customers…
Street Fight Daily: Google Courts Local Media, Billionaire Prince May Back Square
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… Google Helping Local Publishers Surf The Programmatic Wave
(Forbes)… Will this Billionaire Saudi Arabian Prince Back Jack Dorsey’s Square (Fox Business)… GoDaddy Will Take On Shopify With A Simpler E-Commerce Storefront Arriving This Spring (TechCrunch)…
As Seamless Nears IPO, Search and Commerce Continue on Collision Course
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that GrubHub Seamless had made a confidential filing for an initial public offering. The move puts the food ordering giant on a collision course with Yelp and Google as the three firms look to wrangle local consumers who increasingly expect to search, compare and buy in a single keystroke…
5 Self-Serve Deals Platforms for SMBs
Groupon has generated significant press thanks to the recent rollout of its self-serve Deal Builder, which local merchants can use to create limited-time promotions for themselves. However, the daily deals giant is hardly the only vendor offering this type of service to SMBs. For years, a number of hyperlocal vendors have been providing self-service solutions to SMBs…
Street Fight Daily: Location Analytics CEO Arrested, Mobile Commerce Heats Up
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… Former Motionloft CEO Jon Mills Arrested By The FBI (TechCrunch)… Rapid Growth of Mobile Commerce Fuels Rash of Competing Solutions (Financial Times)… MasterCard Dives Deeper Into Mobile With In-app Payments, C-SAM Acquisition (GigaOm)…
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