We've written a lot lately -- here and in longer reports -- on the importance of mobile payments. Standards have yet to emerge in the U.S. and there's lots of experimentation. But once it hits full stride, it will enable lots of…
Last week, I had the chance to catch up with Convergent Mobile, a company we profiled here about a year ago. According to company President Mickey Breen, it's making progress in working with local reseller partners and also building out…
I recently had the chance to talk to Eugene Belenky, founder of SMS marketing tool TXTio, which launched today. Targeted toward merchants that wish to drive local foot traffic and offers, the product's main selling point is its simplicity. Belenky…
On average, people only move every six years or so. So there isn’t likely to be as strong a list of reviews of real estate agents as there is for pizza. But that hasn’t stopped Zillow from adding reviews of…
The Washington Post continues ramping up its vertical strategy, launching Service Alley to provide leads for home and trade professionals. The site, which is a standalone and not directly linked to Washingtonpost.com, follows the launch of other Post verticals, such…
Many national retailers have operated Facebook pages for years, and now local businesses are on-boarding at an alarming rate (BIA/Kelsey’s LCM 14 survey revealed that 48 percent of SMBs already have a dedicated page). These stats augur social shifts 2011:…
My monthly Search Engine Watch column is up. It takes a closer look at our recent forecast and why search is the fastest growing revenue source among mobile ad formats. It has a lot to do with the increasingly vaunted…
In case you missed them, here are a few headlines and links to posts over the past week from our Mobile Local Media blog. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed here, and the e-mail alert here. -- Over at SEW: Will…
Local consumers are looking beyond pure search when they are looking for family fun. That’s the unmet need that Boston-based Goby.com is trying to meet in its 350-category, events and family fun search site. The site is now reaching 500,000…
Just days after consolidating Adify and Cox Cross Media into the integrated advertising network Cox Digital Solutions, the company is making waves again. This time, it's acquiring in order to expand scale by scooping up IB Local Network from Internet…
Rating and review sites for things like dining, nail salons and events (i.e., Yelp) are inevitably going to battle it out with Google. CityGrid Media’s Insider Pages wants to go in a different direction. Since last year, the site has…
Local consumers are looking beyond pure search when they are looking for family fun. That’s the unmet need that Boston-based Goby.com is trying to meet in its 350-category, events and family fun search site. The site is now reaching 500,000…
When it was launched in 2004, Gannett’s Planet Discover was a pioneer in local search and later, the development of local online marketplaces. But it has lately had a lower profile, dating to a temporary mid-2007 mandate to focus on…
In case you missed our webinar yesterday, it's available as a streaming video file (slides and audio) here. The webinar was a great success with nearly 600 attendees and the entire BIA/Kelsey analyst team. Each analyst took a turn explaining…
Google is out with a dedicated iPhone app for Places. The app is built around local categories presented in a Grid -- not unlike Facebook's ubiquitous app or the iPhone home screen itself. The category browsing also makes it more…
Who can forget Jon Stewart's rant on Antennagate, or last week's Facebook Flaming. "The Daily Show" has a way of putting some of the ridiculous events in the tech world into perspective. The latest of course is yesterday's Verizon iPhone…
We've seen a clear movement from pull-based mobile search to push-based mobile content discovery. Where recently went down this road; mobile discovery engine Aloqa was acquired by Motorola earlier this year; and Foursquare and its ilk continue to evolve in this direction.…
We all knew it was coming -- both long term and more definitively since Verizon sent out press invitations to today's event. The Verizon iPhone is here. It's much like the iPhone 4 that runs on AT&T's network except its…
From the cool stuff department, Google's Goggles mobile visual search tool can now read print ads and (the cool part) Sudoku boards. As part of a new update that includes faster scans, Goggles will now recognize any newspaper or magazine…
The interrelationship of daily deals with TV and radio stations and newspapers intrigues us with potential. While not a big factor, traditional media companies can parlay their brand name, promotional power, sales forces and Web sites to reach new merchants…
