News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: Instagram Growing Rapidly, Gannett Earnings Suggest Bleak Outlook for Newspapers

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Gannett Earnings Forecast a Bleak 2017 for Newspaper Companies… Instagram is Growing Faster Than Ever and Now Has 700 Million Users… Waymo Is Hitting Uber Where It Hurts…

Macaroni Kid Pushes Stroller Into Big and Site-Packed Local Parent Space

One of the earliest hyperlocal networks for parents is Macaroni Kid, which was founded by “recovering lawyer” Joyce Shulman and her husband, marketing entrepreneur Eric Cohen, in their community on Long Island in 2009. In this Q&A, Cohen talks about the company’s recent acquisition of also-well-established Stroller Traffic.

Street Fight Daily: Amazon’s Shipping Ambitions, Search Engines Remain Crucial to Local Discovery

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon’s Plan to Dominate the Shipping Industry Is Taking Shape… Most Internet Users Prefer Search Engines to Find Local Products… Publishers Say Facebook Can Save Instant Articles with Better Data, Subscription Tools…

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: 10.13.11

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

The next update to Foursquare’s iPhone app includes a new feature called Radar, which pulls suggestions from the app’s Explore feature. Depending on your location, it might suggest a nearby restaurant, or remind you that the coffee shop on your to-do list is nearby. It will also tell you when your friends are meeting nearby. (TechCrunch)…

LocalResponse, a local marketing system that pushes targeted ads to users based on their check-ins, has raised $5 million. The money will go toward expanding the sales team and building out an enterprise version of the service for brands and agencies. (GigaOm)…

Indy Sites, Trusted Vanguards of Local Referral

There is a system in which people discover businesses that they love. It existed way before there was an Internet, and it’s also the foundation of local advertising. Patrons don’t want to go to sources they don’t trust, though — they want an honest and sincere referral because if an authority loves a place, they are more likely to love it too…

GPS for Groceries: Aisle411 Might Have the Right Ingredients

Sometimes when I enter a large space with the intention of performing a specific task I quickly lose all my energy and fall to the ground. For instance looking for a moon rock at the Air and Space Museum, or a particular gift item from a cacophonous mall: Down for the count. Looking for cumin at the […]

Street Fight Daily: 10.12.11

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

Gannett’s MomsLikeMe hyperlocal parenting network will cease operating on Friday and its 100-plus town-specific sites will go dark and the content will be deleted. (PaidContent)…

AmazonLocal posted more than 300% revenue growth in September. It has expanded to 40 markets and brought in $4 million of gross revenue in September. (Business Insider)…

Daily Deals Industry Moving Into Consolidation Mode

With over 600 companies currently in the daily deals space in the U.S., industry consolidation is bound to occur — with larger companies buying up smaller rivals while other competitors go belly up. To find out more about what to expect in the deals space, Street Fight recently spoke with two industry watchers from local media adviser BIA/Kelsey…

#SFS11 Company Profile: SCVNGR/LevelUp

SCVNGR is a mobile marketing platform that uses location-based game mechanics to improve engagement with brands. Since 2010, the company has partnered up with Dunkin’ Donuts, Swarovski, and numerous universities to build custom marketing campaigns on top of its mobile application. At the same time, the company has seen solid engagement with its rewards product aimed at small and medium size merchants…

Street Fight Daily: 10.11.11

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

Microsoft appears to be readying the formal launch of a Bing-branded daily deals website powered by white-label group buying platform service provider Tippr. This offering is notably different from Microsoft’s earlier launch of Bing Deals, which basically features links to aggregated deals from a number of partners. (TechCrunch)…

The daily deal industry has jolted a formerly sleepy corner of the $30 billion online advertising market: the local part of the paid search marketing business. Local search ads that included references to towns and cities were not in demand until daily deal companies started paying handsomely to track down people interested in neighborhood goods and services. (Reuters)…

Sponsored Post: Free Tickets to Social Media Analytics Conference

Business Insider is giving away 5 free tickets to the VentureBeat community for their Social Media Analytics conference, the place to learn how to measure your social-media impact and generate ROI.

The iPhone 4S: A Local Voice

Apple’s integration of voice search system Siri into the iPhone 4S operating system has clear implications for local search. Mobile voice search could skew local because of the propensity to use voice when out and about and in “lean forward” mode where local commercial intent is high…

Street Fight Daily: 10.10.11

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

All of the major players in the daily deals industry experienced significant gross revenue growth in September. Total industry gross revenue jumped 12%, from an estimated $238 million in August to $267 million in September. The number of deals offered increased by 6%. (Yipit Blog)…

Reports of the death of Groupon’s IPO plans have apparently been greatly exaggerated. The online daily deals pioneer filed an updated version of its S-1 document with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, as part of its preparation for a planned initial public offering of its stock. (GigaOm)…