News and Analysis

7 Ways That Brands Can Make Chatbot Conversations More Authentic

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Chatbots are transforming the customer experience and quickly moving into new sectors — but before marketers can expect conversation-mimicking software and artificial intelligence to replace live customer service representatives, they’ll need to find ways to overcome some consumer obstacles.

Street Fight Daily: Uber Opens Up On Finances, Walmart In Talks to Buy Bonobos

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber, Lifting Financial Veil, Says Sales Growth is Outpacing Losses… Walmart is in Advanced Talks to Acquire Online Men’s Retailer Bonobos… From ‘Zombie Malls’ to Bonobos: America’s Retail Transformation…

Street Culture: Why Telecommuting Makes Sense for Many Tech Startups

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“If you have the right team, the right employees, then they don’t have to be there physically,” says Kristen Stiles, co-founder and CEO of babysitter-finding app Sitter.me. “If you don’t trust your employees to work at home, you shouldn’t have hired them in the first place.”

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Local Quotables: Rick Waghorn, DJ Patil, Michael Fives, Emily Chang & More…

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It’s not easy being a reporter on the daily Groupon deals beat these days. So says fatigued Emily Chang at Bloomberg West. And why did Foursquare win over Gowalla? Because if you can make it in New York, pretty much no one else stands a chance. Or, in the pith provided by one Gowalla investor on why that service lost: “Austin.”

Street Fight Daily: 12.09.11

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

Groupon in Talks to Acquire Clever Sense, the Startup Behind ‘Alfred’ (TechCrunch)…

Google Isn’t Done With Location, Launches Schemer in Private Beta (The Next Web)…

LevelUp Releases HTML5 Web App To Make Its Payments Solution Ubiquitous (ReadWriteWeb)…

Social Media for Hyperlocals: How to Turbo-Charge Engagement

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It’s not enough for hyperlocals to simply post articles to their Facebook page or just tweet them out, say a number of engagement-conscious publishers and editors. Sites need to really understand how social media can propel their brands — and ultimately help the bottom line…

Street Fight Daily: 12.08.11

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

LivingSocial Closes Nearly Half of a $400 Million Round to Delay IPO (AllThingsD)…

Big Ad Money Shifting to Promotions — And Away From Media (PoMo Blog)…

CityMaps Shows Where Businesses Are, Block by Block (New York Times)…

Opening Up the ‘Walled Garden’: Content APIs and the Location Layer

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For small-radius media, in which location plays a far greater role than niche or national media, walling off content will substantially impede industry growth. Ignoring LBS as a viable distribution channel is tantamount to leaving the industry’s most valuable asset grossly under-leveraged.

Hyperpublic: Structuring Place Data, Redefining Hyperlocal’s Scope

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What might we see spring forth from the ether when local data is properly structured? It’s easy to imagine various applications of search — i.e. “Show me all wine bars that serve croquettes.” Similarly, one can imagine that this type of data would be immensely valuable to advertisers who want to target, for example, everybody who drinks beer and is in walking distance of an establishment…

Off-Campus Events Go Hyperlocal With Student Guide Lokalite

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Location-centric events site Lokalite aims to give college students an off-campus guide to local events, bringing a new set of loyal customers to small businesses. Street Fight caught up with CEO Will Powers recently to discuss how his company facilitates those relationships, and why campuses are a particularly ripe market for hyperlocal…

Street Fight Daily: 12.07.11

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

Google+ To Take On Foursquare With Upcoming ‘Check-in Offers’ Feature (TechCrunch)

Only 5% of Adults Use Location-Based Checkin Apps (Mashable)

Mobile Dining Apps LocalEats & BiteHunter Announce Partnership (TechCrunch)

Court Says Blogger Isn’t a ‘Journalist’ — Implications for Hyperlocal

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A federal judge in Portland, Oregon has declared that a local “investigative blogger,” doesn’t qualify as a journalist — calling into question whether online hyperlocal news publishers should be treated differently than traditional media.

JiWire Report: Shift to Mobile Devices to Boost LBS in 2012

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As more and more consumers access the web through location-aware mobile devices, an array of location-based services — ranging from geotargeted advertising and location-based applications to mobile commerce — are poised to make serious headway in 2012