News and Analysis

The Current State of Google Maps — Fake News, Fake Reviews

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“It’s incredible to me that given all of Google’s focus on new local products that they are still getting some of the basics wrong,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm. “People who rely on Google more and more to find local businesses need to know that the fundamental metric of the business quality, reviews, is fair and well policed.”

Friends Don’t Let Friends Dial Drunk — There’s a ‘Mode’ for That

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Drunk Mode is an app that helps users navigate their inebriation — and avoid making embarrassing calls at 2 am. (I’m looking at you every 22-year-old.) CEO Josh Anton, who will be speaking at Street Fight Summit, developed his suite of location-based apps after getting one of those late-night phone calls from a friend.

Street Fight Daily: Snap Loses Ground to Instagram, Lyft and Waymo Partner Up on Self-Driving Cars

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Snap Installs Fall 16% As Instagram Pulls Further Ahead… Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars… What is Digital Transformation, and What Does It Require?…

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Street Fight Daily: 01.19.12

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

Foursquare Adds Restaurant Menus, What About Food Check Ins? (TechCrunch)…

GoLocal24: Positioning Hyperlocal at the Top of The News Cycle (Local Onliner)…

Everyblock Introduces Hyperlocal Event Listings (Everyblock Blog)…

Hyperlocal Publishers Join SOPA Protest

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Online publishers large and small went dark yesterday to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act currently pending in Congress. Declared the “Web Goes on Strike” day by Fight for the Future, sites such as Wikipedia and hyperlocal city directories like City View have gone entirely dark. Google placed a black banner over its logo and included a link “Tell Congress: Please don’t censor the web.”

Non-Profit ‘Independent’ Raises the Bar in New Haven

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In 2006, veteran reporter Paul Bass launched the New Haven Independent as a one-man outfit. Half a decade later, the Connecticut publication boasts nine full-time reporters, runs 20 stories every day, and has a partnership that sees its stories appear in the Spanish-language publication La Voz. Street Fight spoke with Bass recently about the future of the business model, how non-profit local publishers work, and why he thinks Patch was a mistake.

The Daily Deal — Dead Man Walking?

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The evolution of daily deals has not been unlike that of other successful startup stories. But while the story is the same, the pace at which the deals industry went through the stages of maturity has dramatically amplified the signal. Almost four years later, where do we stand?

Music Marketing — A Location-Based Listening Experience

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As location-based marketing becomes increasingly popular, the variation of place-centric apps is also increasing, with niche players competing to provide targeted local ads and promotions. The music industry, in particular, has staked out its place in the location-based marketing scrum through the development of applications that combine music and location into integrated marketing tools…

IAB Counsel: Push to Regulate Online Ads May Lose Traction

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Hyperlocal news publishers have a better chance to prosper with targeted display advertising that is self-regulated, according to Mike Zaneis, the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s General Counsel and Senior Vice President of public policy. Industry groups like the IAB fear government regulations may slow growth for the online industry…

4 Ways Hyperlocal Vendors Are Helping Merchants Run Efficient Campaigns

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In addition to battling it out over features and functionality, more and more platforms and services are upping their game in the way they work one-on-one with merchants. Here are a handful of the ways hyperlocal companies have begun providing support and information to help businesses run more successful deals…

Street Fight Daily: 01.17.12

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

Google Launching Goofy Game to Promote Location Products in Google+ (ReadWriteWeb)…

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason Defends His Decisions on ’60 Minutes’ (AllThingsD)…

How Well Your Deal Sells is Inversely Proportional to Its Amount of Fine Print (Zuupy)…

The Call of the Mall: Where Mobile Advertising Might Really Rock

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Since you are going to be spending money, why not get deals that might help you save money? That’s the theory behind the upwelling of location-based advertising startups hoping to hit it big at the mall. The benefits of layering hyperlocal onto a mall experience are numerous…

Local Quotables: Hartley, Gardner, Thompson and more

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This week’s quotes focus on advertising, technology and new businesses. Sarah Hartley describes how the end of a site can be good while Scott Thompson, newly-appointed CEO of Yahoo talks about the beginning of a new Yahoo. Pat McDevitt discusses the community’s role in advertising, Jonathan Gardner talks about how advertising will change and more.