News and Analysis

Google’s AMP Pages Speed Mobile, But Publisher Control Remains a Big Issue

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Mobile page-loading issues are so pervasive that 59% of users click off content that takes more than three seconds to load, costing news publishers numerous opportunities to lengthen pageviews into sessions and monetize their articles and videos. Google’s AMP addresses the problem, but at what cost?

Street Fight Daily: Walmart Acquires ModCloth, Marketing Tactics Divide Consumers by Generation

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Millenials Follow Brands; Gen-Xers, Contests; Boomers, Promotions… Walmart is Acquiring ModCloth, the Online Women’s Fashion Retailer… Introducing Marketing-Stack Management, Powered by Enterprise Machine Learning…

ShopChat Comes Out of Stealth with a Mobile Shopping Keyboard

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ShopChat’s newly debuted mobile shopping keyboard works with messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and Apple iMessage, letting users find and share pictures of products through their smartphones with their friends. Those friends can then give feedback, including emojis, and recommendations about the products.

Latest Posts

Recommendation Engine Bizzy Couples Check-outs With Foursquare Check-ins

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ReachLocal subsidiary Bizzy has released an update to their recommendation application this morning that integrates Foursquare check-ins with their trademark rating feature, the “check-out.” Like SpotOn, Bizzy allows users to rate and share their opinions of local businesses with followers and friends as well as discover cafes, bars, and restaurants through personalized recommendations that draw on users social graphs and previous ratings…

Case Study: Sports Authority Engages Customers With Location-Based Rewards

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Sports Authority wants customers to do more than just check-in on location-based apps. Vice President of E-commerce Clay Cowan says the national retailer’s goal is for customers to be actively engaged in the stores they’re visiting. Sports Authority has partnered with Shopkick and Foursquare to reward customers with gift cards and discounts for checking out specific products and using preferred credit cards, like American Express, to pay for purchases…

Street Fight Daily: 09.08.11

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

Echoecho is a simple service that lets people request location updates from friends in their phone address book, who then can decide whether to respond with their coordinates. The company announced yesterday that it has raised $750,000 in seed funding from Google Ventures and United Kingdom-based PROFounders Capital. (GigaOm)…

“It seems to me that Digital First is much more likely to solve the problem of building strong — and profitable — web-based local media than is AOL’s Patch,” writes Felix Salmon. “The first and most important reason is that local newspapers are, and always have been, the first best source of local ad-sales talent. … On the other side of the editorial divide, local newspapers are also the first best source of local news, and are generally much more respected and trusted in local communities than any cookie-cutter Patch site is likely to become.” (Reuters)…

FundsOn: Deals Site’s Charitable Twist – Getting by Giving Back

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Charu Chundury was once an entrepreneur focused on software to help manage local youth sports. But these days, he sees an opportunity to tweak the model for charitable giving with an “effort-free” hyperlocal product aimed at the $290 billion a year consumers spend — all the while benefitting small businesses and consumers. How so? With a new company called FundsOn.

Daily Deals 2.0: Card-Connected Offers

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Banks now know more than practically anyone about consumer spending behaviors and they are rapidly entering the digital marketing and local commerce space. Many have rolled out programs that leverage technology to offer customers truly digital deals from merchants of all types via their existing credit or debit cards…

Street Fight Daily: 09.07.11

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

Add Groupon Inc. to the list of hot new Web companies having second thoughts about whether now is a good time to go public. The daily deals website, which is expected to fetch a $20 billion valuation upon its stock-market debut, canceled its investor roadshow and is reevaluating plans for an initial public offering in the face of stock-market volatility. (Wall Street Journal)…

Location-based services are becoming more commonplace tools for mobile users, but check-in services appear to be facing a tough road to adoption, according to new figures from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The organization found that 28 percent of American adults use some form of mobile and social location-based services to get directions or recommendations, or to check into a location. But Pew found that only 4 percent of adults use their phones specifically for check-in services like Foursquare and Gowalla, the same as in November. (GigaOm)…

Case Study: Using Daily Deals to Target College Students

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What’s the best way to draw college students off campus and into nearby coffee shops and stores? Andrew Eigel, owner of gaming cafe Roxx Electrocafe, believes the answer is a combination of daily deal coupons, humorous sandwich boards, and well-placed QR codes that customers can use to redeem free drinks and other specials. The Cincinnati entrepreneur pitted Groupon against LivingSocial to see which one worked better. As it turned out, he needed them both.

Street Fight Daily: 09.05.11

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

GPS navigation services provider TeleNav has completed the acquisition of goby, a local search engine and mobile application developer. goby provides services that allows users to explore events and activities based on location. (M&A Deals)…

Nonprofit news site The Bay Citizen got a jump start to success early in its life with a unique content relationship with The New York Times that provides two pages of local news for the newspaper’s Northern California edition. (NetNewsCheck)…

Why Realtors Are Becoming Hyperlocal Content Producers

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Hyperlocal blogging has become a key part of the real estate agent’s marketing arsenal. Real estate network Active Rain boasts over 200,000 blogger signups, and created a separate arena called Localism devoted to community blogging…

WaPo’s Suburban Newsrooms: Let the Walls Come Tumbling Down

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The shuttering of the Washington Post’s suburban newsrooms shouldn’t be a sad moment at all. It should be an occasion for the Post to let to its staff and the world know that not only is it not retrenching but it is expanding its commitment to the greater Washington community…