News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: Microsoft Releases Tool for SMBs, Google’s Local Services Feature Rebrands

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Microsoft 365 for SMBs Is Now Available… Google’s Contractor Marketplace Expands, Rebrands to ‘Local Services’ in Search… Loyalty Economics: More than the Value Customers Bring to Brands…

How to Visualize Cause and Effect in Local Brand Marketing

Share this:

Mark Stouse, CEO and co-founder of Proof Analytics, says there are ways for chief marketing officers to gird themselves in case of market downturns by using data to support their value to the businesses they serve. This is especially critical, he says given the growing control over tech spending that CMOs now command.

Street Fight Daily: Location to Power Local Google Search, Square Turns to Large Businesses

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google to Use Location Data as Primary Factor for Local Search Results… Square Announces the Register, a $999 POS Device for Larger Businesses… Why Selling Higher-End Brands Gives Walmart a Fighting Chance Against Amazon…

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: Verifone CEO Out, Passbook Still Disappoints

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.VeriFone’s Bergeron Out After Outlook Misses Estimates  (BloombergBusinessweek)… iPhone Passbook: Six Months On and It Still Disappoints (ZDNet)… Google Concedes That Drive-by Prying Violated Privacy (New York Times)…

SXSW: Foursquare’s Crowley Wants to Leverage ‘Active’ Recommendations

Share this:

As Foursquare’s user base expands and its database of grows past 3 billion data points, the company’s CEO says the amount of data available will increasingly make location a fulcrum for leveraging behavior modification.

6 Platforms For Booking Local Services

Share this:

Platforms that allow consumers to book appointments with service-based professionals (like plumbers, electricians, and mechanics) are disrupting the way local services have traditionally been scheduled. Here are six platforms working to change the way local, service-based businesses schedule appointments with consumers…

SXSW: With Pivot, Zaarly’s Focus Shifts to Merchants

Share this:

Zaarly rolled out its “storefronts” initiative last fall, and soon will completely drop the consumer-generated request model it was founded around to shift entirely to a storefront selling approach. From a hyperlocal marketing perspective, one of the most profound effects of this is the way Zaarly is now counting on sellers to bring in buyers…

Street Fight Daily: Google Delivers Same-Day, Local Search on Mobile

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Google Shopping Express Test Partners Include Target And Other Local SF Stores (TechCrunch)… Only 29% Of Consumers Regularly Use Mobile Devices To Find Local Businesses (Search Engine Land)… Retailer Enthusiasm for Mobile Payments Tempered by Power Struggles in Industry (Mobile Commerce Daily)…

Why Local Online Publishers Should Also Be Designing Merchants’ Sites

Share this:

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…

Defining the Local Coefficient: A Conversation with Yelp

Share this:

A growing chunk of physical purchases are influenced online. And the path to purchase increasingly weaves between different screens. But for conversions, it’s all about offline. The question is how long this will remain to be the case. Out of sheer curiosity, Yelp VP Mike Ghaffary ventured to quantify this…

Street Fight Daily: Zaarly Pivots, Can Hyperlocal Scale?

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Zaarly Shutters Its Reverse Craigslist Marketplace, Goes All In On Virtual Storefronts As Co-Founder Exits (TechCrunch)… Hyperlocal Cooties (Buzz Machine)… NY Daily News Releases City Guide App With MyCityWay (AdWeek)…

Publishers Could Gain More Control as Browsers Curb Behavioral Ads

Share this:

As limits arise on behavioral ads, endemic sites (or sites with actionable user data) can essentially become ad networks. If browser limits mean that Cars.com can no longer sell its data, then the opportunity exists for the company itself to develop a platform to sell audience extension…

With New Self-Serve Product, Weather Channel Eyes SMB Spend

Share this:

Late last week the company began piloting a new self-serve interface in a move to open its advertising platform to small and medium-sized business — a new market for the company. Built on top of PaperG’s white-label interface, the product is still in its early days…