Whither the Search Engine in the Age of Mobile?

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The path to purchase ceased being linear some time ago, probably as soon as online-to-offline became a standard part of the marketing lexicon. But as mobile has begun to wield increasing influence over the shopping process — at home, on the go, and in-store — the path has grown even more convoluted. The latest evidence comes from a new study conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC) on behalf of YP.

Street Fight Daily: Mobile Wallets Can Guide Search’s ‘Next Moment,’ BuzzFeed Wants to Go Local

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Mobile Wallets, GPS and Beacons: How to Dominate the ‘Next Moment’ of Local Search (Search Engine Land)… BuzzFeed Is Planning to Enter the Local News Game in the U.K. (Nieman Lab)… Grubhub, DoorDash, and Caviar Hit with Worker-Misclassification Complaints (San Francisco Business Times)…

Street Fight Daily: Groupon Will Cut 1,100 Jobs, LivingSocial is Planning a Comeback

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Groupon to Cut 1,100 Jobs, Pull Out of 7 Countries (Chicago Tribune)… The Resurrection of LivingSocial (DCInno)… The Commoditization of Ad Tech — How the Cross-Device Landscape is Going to Get Worse Before It Gets Better (Medium)…

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.

The Not-So-Low-Hanging Fruit: Why the Local Market Remains Elusive

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“The great challenge of winning the local market boils down to balancing sufficient reach and scale with specificity,” writes Noah Elkin, who is joining Street Fight today as managing editor. “It turns out thinking globally and acting locally isn’t always easy — as a consumer or a marketer.”

Will Mobile Search Dethrone Google?

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Why would Google’s market leadership be vulnerable to mobile search incursion? Innovation in search can occur at the user experience level, the core indexing and ranking algorithms, and the business model and ecosystem that supports search. Each of these faces potential mobile disruption.

6 Ways Local Merchants Can Compete in Organic Search Results

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Type in a generic search term for nearly any local service and you’re likely to see listings for national brands and retail chains. Local businesses have largely been pushed out of the first page. So local merchants have to make a change in their SEO strategies.

Street Culture: SweetIQ Empowers Employees to Drive Independent Progress

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Non-structured employee bonding opportunities help provide a new perspective on topics that have often already been discussed at length in meetings and via email. Sometimes the best results happen naturally as employees form relationships with each other outside of work.

Study Finds Consumer Search Preferences Depend Heavily on Type of Business

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A few categories like restaurants, physicians, and beauty salons consistently capture the greatest volume of searches, stretching out into a long tail of lower-volume searches for occasional needs like roofing, chiropractors, and house cleaning.

YP’s Split and Local.com’s Bankruptcy: Ain’t No Big Deal

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YP’s split and Local Corp’s bankruptcy filing might strike you as huge events. But for the greater local search industry, I don’t see these as particularly big milestones…

Why We Still Search for ‘Starbucks’ on Google Maps

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With calendar integration, a generalized understanding of me generated from analyzing my geographic movements over time, and (perhaps) biosensor feedback from wearables, a mobile app may be able to predict my actual need, and suggest places that may be closer, higher rated, or otherwise more convenient than the Starbucks I now search for.

Why Google’s Competition May Be Gaining in Mobile Search

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For years, venture capitalists steered clear of the most successful Internet product ever: search. But now, investors are betting that a handful of new mobile search startups can question Google’s dominance. One of those startups, Vurb, might have the answer.

Yelp Reportedly Explores a Sale — Could Priceline Be a Fit?

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Yelp may be on the auction block. In addition to the usual suspects, one less likely company stands out as a potential candidate: Priceline Group, the new owner of OpenTable.

The Mobile Search Tipping Point: A Global Perspective

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The smartphone by its nature is portable, location-based, and focused on immediacy. Whether local search is a major segment of consumer activity or not today in a given country, there’s little question that it will be, and soon…

Local Corp CEO: More and More of What Local Directories Do Will Be Absorbed Into Apps

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Last week, the fifteen year-old directory site announced that it was hiring a firm to pursue ‘strategic alternatives. Fred Thiel, the relatively new chief executive at Local Corporation, says the company would make an attractive take-over target.

Yelp Learns the Hard Way: Small Talk Matters When Selling to SMBs

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Yelp is off to a rocky start in 2015. Sluggish user growth and a botched sales reorganizations led to a massive sell-off Wednesday evening.

GrubHub CEO Thinks Data — Not Content — Is the Future of Restaurant Discovery

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Investors sold off shares of GrubHub Thursday on slimmer profits, but the rest of the metrics look solid. Meanwhile, CEO Matt Maloney says the company wants to put its data about hundreds of millions of orders to work to help pick your next meal.

Sponsored Post: Using Analytics to Optimize a PPC Campaign

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When it comes to uncovering the real value behind a pay-per-call (PPC) campaign, analytics are key. Performance analytics provide the types of holistic insights that marketers need to determine what is working about their PPC campaigns — and what isn’t…

What Google’s Entry Into the Home Services Space Means for Local

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Google revealed earlier this week that it was readying an entry into the hotly contested home services category. Will Google have enough long-term commitment to a serious standalone product in this space to produce a real game-changer for local?

You Can Now Order an Uber Directly from the YP App

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In a first for local directories, ex-Yellow Pages provider YP has integrated with Uber’s API to allow searchers to book a car directly from the YP site or mobile app.