News and Analysis

Street Fight’s Predictions for 2018: Part One

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As 2017 draws to a close, we’ve once again asked Street Fight staffers, columnists, and friends to look into their crystal ball and offer prognostications for what they thought will be the biggest story (or stories) in local in 2018.

Street Fight Daily: Google Says Sites Can Still Opt Out of Web Crawling, The Alexa Revolution

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Good News for Yelp — Google Will Continue to Allow Sites to Opt Out of Its Web Crawling… Millions Use Alexa to Shop, and Brands Need to Start Paying Attention… Brand Safety in 2017: Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going…

Street Fight Daily: Amazon Thrives on Last-Minute Shopping, Pubs See Gains in E-Commerce

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Last-Minute Shoppers Boost Amazon As Yearly Usage of Expedited Delivery Services Doubles… For Some Publishers, The Holidays Bring Jumps in E-Commerce Sales… Search Disruption: How Brands Will Compete with the Duopoly in 2018…

Latest Posts

With Digital Video, Newspaper Companies Could Disrupt Local TV

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Here’s what I think will happen. The local newspapers that are smart are already getting serious about creating video content. Some of them are beginning to figure out how to get that content to consumers via set-top boxes, and they will be the first to experiment with partnering with companies like Aereo instead of fighting them in court…

Openings & New Hires at Yellowbot, LiveIntent, Village Voice, and Groupon

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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. Moves this edition include new execs at Punchey and Tribune, and job openings at Yelp, The Weather Channel, Google, and more…

LBMA Podcast: Apple Making Social Maps, YuMe’s Targeted Video Ads

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In this week’s episode, Apple is creating a Waze of their own; France rocks biometric payments and IBM’s Smarter Cities billboards; and tracking moods through facial expressions to sell cosmetics. SolveMedia and Unilever brand the captcha. Plus special guest Krina Patel of Ingenious Med…

Street Fight Daily: Apple Acquires Locationary, Yelp Snaps Up Reservations Service

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyApple Acquires Local Data Outfit Locationary (AllThingsD)… Yelp To Acquire Restaurant Reservation Service SeatMe To Take On OpenTable (Verge)… Yelp To Acquire Restaurant Reservation Service SeatMe To Take On OpenTable (Verge)…

Privacy Hawks in Tow, Euclid Pushes Ahead With Offline Retail Analytics

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Amid congressional queries and rumbles in the press over privacy concerns, Euclid is pushing ahead with its effort to bring Google Analytics to the physical world. The service, which uses wi-fi signals to provide brick-and-mortar retailers with store analytics, has released a major update, adding new metrics, industry benchmarks, and a substantial redesign to its dashboard…

How ARLNow Succeeds in a Market Packed With Competitors

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“Print media types may hear ‘quality’ and think ‘in-depth, investigative reporting’ — but that’s not necessarily what I mean,” says ARLNow founder Scott Brodbeck. “At the moment, I believe that breadth is more important than depth in local. But too much or too little of each can hurt. Striking a good balance in terms of shorter and longer articles, and publishing those articles at semi-regular intervals throughout the day, encourages repeat readership.”

Case Study: Bakery Uses Mobile POS for Real-Time Business Analytics

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When Tara Koenig first began researching mobile point-of-sale systems for her Virginia cupcake bakery back in 2011, her interest wasn’t driven by the lack of upfront costs or tablet integrations. It was driven by necessity. The location Koenig had chosen for her new bakery was a 500-square-foot garage with no telephone lines (a feature that’s typically necessary when installing a hardware-based POS system)…

Street Fight Daily: Yahoo Acquires Hyperlocal Ad-Tech, LivingSocial Cuts Worse Than Expected

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyYahoo Buys Mobile Ad Tech, Now What About Reach? (MarketingLand)… Why the LivingSocial ‘Adventures’ Cuts Are more Than Expected  (Washington Business Journal)… Companies To Develop Privacy Standards For Tracking Brick-And-Mortar Shoppers (MediaPost)…

Study: Facebook Sees Growth as Local Search Source

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A new study by Yext finds that consumers have started to come to Facebook to find local information. The study found that a little over 12% of respondents used Facebook to find local information, nearly twice the number for specialized-sites and a few points shy of the Yellow Pages/Local directories…

How Local Search Looks to the Rest of Us

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It seems like many recent conversations, webinars, articles, and studies have pointed to the same conclusion: local search as an industry is insufficiently aware of how its products are actually used by consumers and small businesses. Many of the solutions put forward by consumer-facing local publishers and by business-facing services overestimate our appetite for new products and the amount of time and energy we want to spend using online tools…