News and Analysis

Google Local Service Ads: Ready for Primetime

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“While I do think this is about a new revenue stream in new categories and cleaning up spammy industries the rebranding might just also be an effort (unusual for Google) brand clarity around their Google Home product,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm in their bi-weekly column..

Deep Dive Into Facebook Finds Dim Revenue Hopes for News Sites

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Grzegorz Piechota, a digital strategist for news media companies worldwide, talked with Street Fight recently about his research into Facebook for WAN-IFRA and what his findings may augur for publishers in their quest for more revenue from the platforms, especially at the local level.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Sets Sights on Yelp and Foursquare, Uber Approves $10B SoftBank Deal

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Relaunches Events App as Facebook Local… Uber Approves SoftBank’s Multi-Billion Dollar Investment Offer… Spirited Media Fights Collapse of Local News…

Latest Posts

The AR of the Future Is About ‘Helping People Make Decisions’

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Augmented reality is still a fairly new technology, but in the coming years it could have huge implications for how we see and browse through the world around us. Street Fight recently spoke with Jules White, co-founder and chief scientist of PAR Works, about how AR can be used to aid in the consumer’s decision making process.

Case Study: Consistency Is Key to Local Marketing for N.C. Restaurant

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While e-newsletters have been a useful tool for promoting loyalty among current customers, Gwen Holtsclaw says Facebook has been far more useful for generating attention in her local area. Even the ScrubOaks Restaurant website has become a “secondary resource” for customer acquisition. “[Customers] hear about us or they see a Facebook post, and if they’re curious they’ll go to the website to see what the full menu is.”

Street Fight Daily: Foursquare’s Big Update, Pandora Hits 200M Users

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Foursquare’s Upcoming iOS Release Is A Pivotal Moment For The Company, As In It’s “Now Or Never” (AllThingsD)… Doubling Its U.S. Member Base in 2 Years, Pandora Hits 200M Registered Users (VentureBeat)… Big Money For Little Sites: Mobile Website Maker DudaMobile Raises Another Round, Extends Series B By $10.3 Million (TechCrunch)…

5 Platforms SMBs Can Use to Monitor Local Competitors

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Today’s top competitive intelligence platforms give SMBs a way to go far beyond tracking keywords and mentions. These hyperlocal tools give merchants and service providers a way to identify the most important players in their local markets and analyze which of those businesses’ marketing strategies is producing the greatest returns…

When Will The Last Yellow Pages Book be Printed?

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With the rise of local search sites, social media, and mobile directories, the physical Yellow Pages books delivered to consumers’ doors — long a staple of local marketing — are quickly becoming obsolete. We asked a few folks from around the industry what date they would envision for the directories’ final print run…

Street Fight Daily: Newspaper Revenues Sink, Why ZocDoc is Winning

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Newspaper Ad Sales Skid for Seventh Straight Year (Newosaur)… Why ZocDoc is Winning: Dissenting Employees, Unlimited Vacation, & Diet Coke (VentureBeat)… Brands Buy Real-Time Mobile Ads Based on the Weather (AdWeek)…

Efficiently Selling to SMBs: Finding Paths of Less Resistance

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We’re entering a more fertile environment for what I’ll call the SMB advertising “Trojan Horse.” Local companies start by targeting SMBs’ CRM systems, payroll, back office management, reputation management and payment processing. From there, local advertising can be unveiled as a “one-stop-shop” upsell…

Layar Shifts Focus From AR to Print, But Has Hopes for Geo-Located Future

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When Layar launched in 2010, a lot of excitement about the Dutch company stemmed from its augmented reality browser. But while the concept was very cool to local-focused techies, it didn’t quite catch on with regular users the way that it needed to…

Street Fight Daily: HopStop Channels Waze, Should Groupon Buy Foursquare?

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.HopStop Live Brings Real-Time Crowdsourced Transit Information to the iPhone (Verge)… Check In, Flame Out: How To Save Foursquare (TechCrunch)… Patent filing Suggests Apple is Working on ‘Street View’ mMapping Technology (Apple Insider)…

Why the Commoditization of Local Information Is an Opportunity for Journalism

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Some have seen the shift of local information — from something that was unique to newspapers to a commodity that is available from a variety of sources — as the end to local news. But I actually think it presents a great opportunity for journalists to do what they do best: put information into context and tell us why it matters…