The Privatization of Local Search

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Local search takes place across services that are proprietary and dedicated, even if indirectly, toward earning revenue for the companies that run them. But that doesn’t preclude us from thinking of local search as a kind of public utility whose objective is to provide accurate and consistent information. That means treating local listings primarily as a public good, not a business.

With iOS 9 Release, Local Businesses Should Care ‘Deeply’ About Apple Maps

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Most local businesses and search marketers have focused primarily on their visibility within Google Maps. With Apple’s iOS 9 now available, it’s time they focused their attention on Apple Maps as well. Businesses that don’t may soon fall behind competitors.

Exploits and Vulnerabilities Challenge the Integrity of Google Maps

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The recent run of bad luck for Google doesn’t lend itself to a simple comprehensive explanation, but each of the company’s recent issues in its own way highlights a key problem for Google: how to build and maintain an accurate local dataset on a global scale…

Street Fight Daily: Mobile Web Market to Triple, Facebook Adds Critics’ Restaurant Reviews

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Mobile Web Market Will Triple in Size to $850B by 2018 (VentureBeat) Mobile phones and mobile networks will be growing just 10 percent and five percent per year, respectively, by 2018, but mobile web services will continue growing like crazy. Mobile commerce […]

Street Fight Daily: Google Maps Chief Replaced, Walgreens’ Mobile Strategy

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… One of Google’s Most Influential Execs Was Replaced as the Head of Google Maps and is Biding his Time (Business Insider)… Retale, The App That Puts Weekly Store Circulars On Your Smartphone, Raises $12 Million (TechCrunch)… Once Left For Dead, is Foursquare Coming Back? (San Francisco Business Times)…

Street Fight Daily: Yahoo Eying Foursquare, Zomato Raises $50M

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Foursquare Unleashes Location Data for Cross-Mobile Ad Targeting (AdWeek)… India’s Restaurant Search App Zomato Raises $50M At $1B+ Valuation, Buys MaplePOS (TechCrunch)… E.U. Charges Google With Violating Antitrust Laws (New York Times)…

Street Fight Daily: Apple Pay’s Slow Growth, Postmates Delivers Starbucks

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… 85% Of iPhone 6 Owners In The U.S. Haven’t Bothered Trying Apple Pay, Study Claims (VentureBeat)… Starbucks Delivery Is Real and It’s Coming to Seattle and the Empire State Building (Recode)… GoDaddy’s IPO To Value Web Hosting Company At $2.87 Billion (Reuters)…

Street Fight Daily: Google Launches ‘Local Guides,’ Ten Years of Google Maps

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Google Takes On Yelp Elites With Its New “Local Guides” Program (TechCrunch)… Ten Years of Google Maps, From Slashdot to Ground Truth (Recode)… How Apple’s iOS 8 Changes The Game For Brands And Retailers (Mobile Marketer)…

Survey Highlights the Challenges of Marketing to Smaller SMBs

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The evidence suggests that marketers who can tell a simple and compelling story tying ROI to hard evidence will stand the greatest chance of winning SMB confidence. The trick is doing this at sufficient scale to be profitable…

Street Fight Daily: Google Redesigns Maps, Walmart Searches Inside

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Google Maps gets better integration with Uber and OpenTable (Mashable)… Walmart Brings Product Search To The In-Store Experience (Search Engine Land)… Amazon Tries Out Taxi Deliveries In California Cities (CNBC)…

Street Fight Daily: Apple Locks NFC to Apple Pay, Clear Channel Rebrands

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyApple’s iPhone 6 NFC Chip is Restricted to Apple Pay (Verge)… Clear Channel Rebrands As IHeartMedia (AdAge)… Is the Mobile Check-In Dead? (AdWeek)…

Street Fight Daily: xAd Raises $50 Million, iWatch to Include Payments

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyLocation Is Everything, As Mobile Ad Startup xAd Raises $50M Led By IVP (TechCrunch)… Apple Watch to Allow Mobile Payments (Wall Street Journal)… Interpublic Invests in Mobile Measurement Company Placed (MediaPost)…

Street Fight Daily: Google Maps Eyes Yelp, Nextdoor Adds Business Lead

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyGoogle Maps Added One Of Yelp’s Best Features (BusinessInsider)… Nextdoor Hires Disney’s Christa Quarles as Chief Business Officer (Recode)… Model Number for Apple’s Mystery iBeacon Device May Hint at Upgrade to Existing Hardware (AppleInsider)…

Unmanaged Local Listings Hurt Consumers and Businesses Alike

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Google Maps and its competitors have become the most important pathways to brick and mortar businesses outside foot traffic and word of mouth. As one recent case indicates, an accurate Google Maps listing can be a matter of life or death for a local business. The company needs a stronger and more concerted effort to enlist the help of business owners to address this problem…

Street Fight Daily: Airbnb Tests Local Experiences, Patch Turns a Corner

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyAirbnb Quietly Tests Selling Tours and Other ‘Experiences’ (VentureBeat)… Patch, a Network for Hyperlocal News, Turns a Corner (Boston Globe)… PubMatic, xAd Team To Launch Location-Based Programmatic Marketplace For Mobile (MediaPost)…

LBMA Podcast: YP’s Mobile Labs and Second Canvas

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This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association. Top stories of the week include Digby and Phunware, Amazon & Twitter, Uber & Google Maps, RoadID, PareUp & excess food, Selfridge’s Fragrance Lab, Rivada’s nascent mesh network, & Nivea’s SUN ads….

What’s in a Swarm? Making Sense of Foursquare’s Split

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It’s hard to envision now, but it could be that a decoupled discovery and recommendation service will be just what Foursquare needs to scale its dataset beyond entertainment and to encourage users to improve the quality and accuracy of venue information. These developments would turn Foursquare into a viable competitor to data aggregators like Infogroup and possibly to Google Maps itself…

Street Fight Daily: Square Reportedly Postpones IPO, Apple Brings iOS to the Car

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologySquare IPO Postponed Indefinitely (Fox Business)… Apple to Bring iPhone Software to Cars (Wall Street Journal)… Google ‘Map Jacking’ is Rampant, a Threat to Public Safety (Komo News)…

Street Fight Daily: Uber’s Surge Pricing Stays, AOL CEO Speaks About Patch

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.Uber CEO: Surge Pricing Is Here to Stay (Wall Street Journal)… AOL CEO Upbeat on Adap.tv Business, Patch Partnership (USA Today)… Yelp seeks Washington clout after rapid rise in Silicon Valley (The Hill)…

Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Raises Another $35M, eBay’s Strategy for Offline Commerce

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.…. Foursquare Raises a $35 Million Round and Adds DFJ’s Schuler to the Board (AllThingsD)… EBay’s Strategy for Taking On Amazon (New York Times)… Nextdoor Talks Growth, Now Being Used In One In Six Neighborhoods In The US (TechCrunch)…