Why ‘Google My Business’ Helps, But Doesn’t Fix, Local for SMBs
The company’s redesign of its SMB portal replaces both the old Google Places for Business interface and the equivalent within Google+, and consolidates several features into a friendlier interface. The features for the most part are not new, but the update does a good job of tying together the claiming and profile management process with Google+ sharing…
Street Fight Daily: Delivery Service Raises $44M, Uber Partners With ‘Transformers’
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Investors Pour $44 Million Into Instacart as Google Is Forced to Take Notice (Recode)… Paramount Turns to Uber for ‘Transformers’ Promotion Pick Up (Variety)… In New Jersey, With $2 million From Knight, the Local News Lab Launches to Seek Revenue Models (Nieman Journalism Lab)…
Street Fight Daily: Priceline Buys OpenTable, Pinterest Expands Place Search
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Priceline Agrees to Buy OpenTable for $2.6 Billion (Wall Street Journal)… With 1 Billion+ Travel Pins, Pinterest Gives Place Search An Upgrade (SearchEngineLand)… Location Sharing Startup Glympse Raises $12M As It Looks For More Device Integration (TechCrunch)…
Street Fight Daily: Amazon Plans Local Marketplace, RadioShack’s Losses Deepen
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Plans Local Services Marketplace This Year (Reuters)… RadioShack Draws on Credit Line as Losses Deepen (Wall Street Journal)… Google to Buy Skybox Imaging for $500 Million (New York Times)…
Street Fight Daily: Pinterest Eyes Small Business, Mobile Search Shifts From Google
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Pinterest Takes on Google and Facebook With Self-Service Ads (Wall Street Journal)… Study: Mobile Search Is Shifting From Google to Mobile Apps Like Yelp (AdAge)… P&G, Pepsi Try Out Foursquare’s New App, Swarm (AdAge)…
Street Fight Daily: What Apple Left Out, Google Kills Coupons
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… What Apple Didn’t Announce At WWDC 2014 (ReadWrite)… Google Will Kill Off Its Digital Coupon Business, Zavers (Recode)… Online Home Improvement Company Houzz Looking To Raise At $2.3 Billion Valuation (Forbes)…
Street Fight Daily: Intuit’s Buying Spree Continues, Google Eyes Skybox
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Intuit to Buy Bill-Payment Service Check Inc. for $360 Million (Wall Street Journal)… Google Close To Snapping Up Satellite Startup Skybox Imaging For $1B+, Say Sources (TechCrunch)… Investor Talk on Uber’s Valuation Hits as High as $17 Billion (Wall Street Journal)…
Street Fight Daily: Yelp Adds Video, Verizon Sells Mobile Ads
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yelp Is Adding A New Video Feature To Its Reviews (BusinessInsider)… Verizon Looks to Target Its Mobile Subscribers With Ads (AdAge)… Google Plans Low-Cost, High Quality Wi-Fi Networks For Small- And Medium-Sized Businesses (TechCrunch)…
For Small Businesses, A Reprieve After Decades of Retreat
Earlier this week, the National Federation of Independent Business announced that its small business confidence index rose 1.8 points to 95.2 in April, the highest reading since October 2007. With small business week coming to a close, small businesses are certainly better off today than they were a decade ago…
Why One Investor Thinks Foursquare Has a Future in Ad Tech
Add this to the interesting-but-never-going-to-happen suggestion box for Foursquare: ditch the consumer business altogether. Nihal Mehta, a New York-based entrepreneur-turned-investor, thinks that Foursquare might find a bigger business by bailing on its local search ambition to put its algorithm to work as an attribution product for mobile advertising…
Street Fight Daily: Square’s Alleged Saboteur, Google Buys Website Builder
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Sequoia’s $12B Man Says Someone With ‘Axe to Grind’ is After Square (Upstart)… Google Gobbles Up Restaurant Startup (Wall Street Journal)… Uber Launches uberFAMILY, a Pilot Service in NYC That Uses Cars With Child Seats (TheNextWeb)…
Two Years After Private Equity Carve-Out, What’s Next for YP?
Two years ago, AT&T shed its local marketing business, selling a majority stake in its print and digital yellow pages assets to Cerberus Capital for $950 million in cash and debt. During a conversation with Street Fight, the company’s CEO David Krantz said the company is well-ahead of where its private equity parent expected it would be, and discussed how YP planned reprise its role as a leading consumer brand…
What Roadside Assistance Can Tell Us About the Future of Local Search
Urgently, a Washington D.C. startup, has built an application that allows drivers to request, and pay for, a nearby tow truck or automotive technician, and then track the provider as they come to their destination. The service is one of handful new companies, which are working to apply the on-demand model developed by the taxi hailing company Uber to a range of traditionally offline, and often backwater industries, like repair.
At Microsoft, a Renewed Push for Small Business
Over the past year, Microsoft has managed to grow Bing’s market share — albeit, marginally — while investing in expanding its advertising presence among small business. Part of the effort is to use its search business as a springboard to bring advertising to a host of other platforms, many of which have never before been a home to ads…
Street Fight Daily: LivingSocial Slips Further, Consumers Balk on Mobile Wallets
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… LivingSocial Sales Slip Further (Wall Street Journal)… Few Consumers Are Buying Premise of Mobile Wallets (New York Times)… Airbnb Wants to Be a Travel Agent (Wall Street Journal)…
Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s ‘Nearby Friends,’ Twitter Debuts App Promo Suite
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… 
Facebook’s “Nearby Friends” Feature Aims for More Offline Connections (Recode)… Twitter’s New Ad Unit Is A Huge, Huge Deal. Here’s Why (Forbes)… Citymapper Just Got Off the Funding Bus and Is Now $10M Richer (VentureBeat)…
Street Fight Daily: Twitter Buys Gnip, Google Developing Microcamera Contact Lens
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… 
Twitter Embraces Its Data and Buys Gnip (GigaOm)… Google’s Microcamera Contact Lens Is Coming to an Eyeball Near You (Time)… Seeking Growth, The Payments Industry Embraces New Technologies (TechCrunch)…
Street Fight Daily: Google Tracks Offline Purchases, Alibaba Buys Mapping Firm
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Tests a Way to Follow You to the Mall (Wall Street Journal)…. Alibaba to Acquire Chinese Mapping Firm as Buying Spree Continues (New York Times)… Digital First Names David J. Butler Its Editor-in-Chief (Poynter)…