News and Analysis

The Impending HTTPstrophe — And What it Means for Local Businesses

“Google is rapidly moving towards a time when HTTPS will be an absolute necessity for websites,” writes David Mihm to Mike Blumenthal. “As soon as this month if an http:// website contains any input field, users will start getting scary security messages.”

Street Fight Daily: Google Modifies Practices to Help Publishers, Brands Pursue Experiential Marketing

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Unveils Tools to Increase Subscriptions for Publishers… Agencies See Experiential Marketing as the Next Big Thing, and Brands Want In… eMarketer Lowers Snapchat’s Ad Revenue Forecast for 2017…

How a New Active Wear Brand Takes on the Big Guys

California-based Vuori Clothing started as a brand focused on yoga wear for men, and was (and still is) heavily reliant on using hyper-local marketing efforts to build brand awareness. Street Fight recently caught up with marketing VP Nikki Sakelliou to talk about the company’s local efforts.

Latest Posts

In Superstorm Sandy, GramercyOne Carries on Through the Cloud

As a provider of cloud based software, GramercyOne, based in lower Manhattan, embraced these systems for internal infrastructure and despite the office and surrounding area being completely offline and inaccessible, all of its mission critical systems, including its SaaS application used by thousands of businesses, was fully operational. Here, CEO Josh McCarter shares his company’s and his personal experiences through the storm and its aftermath.

Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Eyes Funding, SEC Presses Groupon

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Foursquare Looks Into A Fourth Round At An Over $700M Valuation, Investors Skeptical (TechCrunch)… SEC Asked Groupon for Financial Disclosures (The Wall Street Journal)… Yelp’s Flaws Become Apple Maps Flaws in iOS 6 (GigaOm)…

As Paywalls Evolve, So Does the Perception of Paywalls

It’s time to acknowledge that, overall, people are starting to get used to paying for content online — especially on smartphones and tablets. It will be interesting to see how the various paywall models play out over time, but I have become more confident that paywalls (in some form or fashion) are a piece of the puzzle to running a profitable hyperlocal or regional news website…

Openings & New Hires at Patch, Yelp, Supermedia, HopStop, Square & More

Executives moving on up and over lately in sales, product, marketing, business development and more. Plus, who’s hiring? Yext, Yelp, Yodle, Restaurant.com, LivingSocial, DealHeaven, Apple and HopStop. Hyperlocal is expanding fast, and these openings are just one indication. Listings include links on where to apply. Get started now!

PODCAST: This Week in Location Based Marketing — McDonalds, Mondelez

In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan talk about how McDonalds is taking aim with Rovio’s Angry birds in China; Square makes its way north to Canada; Plus news from Gigwalk, Yelp and Yahoo + special guest Ed Kaczmarek, Director of Innovation and Emerging Technology at Mondelez International…

Street FIght Daily: Yelp Dismisses Google’s Local Content, Google Expands Wallet

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Yelp Not Worried About Google’s “Struggling” Local Content Play (PandoDaily)… Google Wallet Expands To Mobile Web (TechCrunch)… Coupons Boost Starbucks (The Wall Street Journal)…

Does Hyperlocal ‘Engagement’ Work — And Can it Be Monetized?

In 2002, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jan Schaffer founded J-Lab to help the news media use technology to engage citizens on big public issues. There’s a lot of talk about hyperlocal news sites using technology and social media to take civic journalism to a new level where the community is an equal player, but how much is wishful thinking and how much reality? I went to Schaffer for answers…

Pirq Closes $1.2 Million Funding Round, Launches New Version of App

Instant-deals and loyalty provider Pirq released version 2.0 of its mobile real-time deals app this morning, offering consumers digital punch cards to accumulate rewards in four new verticals. The Washington-based company also announced it’s closed a $1.2 million round in venture financing…

LocalVox Acquires Postling, Releases Product Suite 3.0

Fresh off raising $7.4 million in Series A funds, New York-based local marketing platform LocalVox has announced the acquisition of Postling, which creates a social media marketing dashboard product used by over 20,000 small businesses..

Lucky Ant Waives Fees, Opens Crowdfunding to SMBs in Wake of Sandy

Many small businesses affected by the wrath of the hurricane will require working capital to make repairs, and the Brooklyn-based Lucky Ant wants to help them raise that money from their communities. The company has waived its fee, allowing any business (in New York or elsewhere) to raise funds for recovery free of charge…