News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: Target Acquires Grand Junction, Lyft Has Capitalized On Uber’s Woes
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Target Acquires Transportation Company Grand Junction to Expand Same-Day Delivery… Lyft Focuses on Self-Driving Cars But Confirms It’s Gotten a Boost from Uber’s Troubles… Ad Institute Challenges Google and Facebook to Improve Measurement Standards…
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Block-by-Blockers Respond to Borrell’s Revenue Prescription
“People are beginning to figure out that the display advertising model is a bad carryover from mass media,” says Gordon Borrell. “What does that mean for the future of hyperlocal websites? I think there’s value in them, but I honestly don’t think there’s enough value to sustain the business model in any single market beyond being a very small niche.”
How Real Estate Agents Are Using LBS to Connect Buyers and Sellers
Real estate has always been about “location, location, location,” but that maxim is truer now than ever. Mobile apps and location-based services are increasingly becoming an important part of a real estate agent’s marketing arsenal, and an important part of the way prospective buyers find places to live…
Street Fight Daily: Yelp Surges, Google Monetizes Third-party Maps
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Yelp Surges as Growth Potential Counters Lockup Expiry (Businessweek)… Google Launches New Ad Formats To Help Developers Monetize Google Maps (TechCrunch)… Square Extends Its Retail Reach, Now Sells Its Card Reader at 1k AT&T Stores, 20k total (The Next Web)…
Why Are Local Search Results Polluted With Bad Content?
Really good local is half Q&A, half search and includes enough activity and ratings and comments to provide more than temporal relevance. But many sites that come up high in searches have few ratings, and don’t provide me with particularly useful or relevant information. And there is rarely a social graph overlay…
6 Ways to Encourage User Contributions on Hyperlocal Sites
Encouraging readers to comment on stories, share news tips, and contribute content involves more than adding a commenting widget or slapping a “Tips” button on the header of a site. Here are six tips from successful publishers and editors about how independent publications can solicit feedback from their readers online…
Street Fight Daily: Yelp Bulls Get Bearish, Google Wants More Wallet
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Yelp Traders Brace for Lockup Expiration; ‘Better to Be Safe Than Sorry’ (Wall Street Journal)… Google Wallet Aspires To Hold All Your Cards and Tickets (GigaOm)… How The Web ‘Check In’ Is Growing Up (Forbes)…
Where Do Business Listings Come From?
At some point in the future, local data must become purely digital, because the phone book will not be around forever. But until a critical mass of U.S. businesses understands the rationale for managing online data, this fundamental problem will continue. We need the concerted effort of all local search players to educate the local business community and advocate for the transition to digital data…
Data That Thinks ‘Big,’ But Acts Local
Local media is increasingly colliding with the emerging super-sector known as “Big Data.” This will define the “mobile+local” promise we keep hearing about — that location targeted ads will boost relevance, performance and thus monetiztion. But one thing often missing from the discussion is what the heck we mean by “location targeted?”
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Beyond Likes: Win Hearts with Emotional Marketing