As we round the corner on 2o12's half-way mark, the mobile local space continues to move rapidly. Following our January predictions (some of which have already come true), we took some time to now revisit the biggest trends driving mobile…
Two schools of thought have broken out about loyalty programs. The first is to build a collective currency for points or other loyalty incentives that can be used anywhere in the network. This is the approach taken by players such…
Amazon has reportedly purchased UpNext, the five-year-old, 3-D mapping and directory service that now provides "clickable building"-oriented maps for more than 50 cities, including 23 that are enhanced in depth. The service has experimented with a number of features, including…
MerchantCircle.com released findings today from a survey that revealed 50 percent of small-business owners follow political candidates or related organizations on Facebook. Fourteen percent of respondents follow these groups on Twitter. The survey comprised more than 6,000 U.S. small-business owners.…
Thanks to all who attended or contributed to our Mobile Local Media conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. It was by all measures a success. Google, Groupon, Pandora, PayPal, Yelp, Stewart Alsop ... you can't go wrong. We even had…
For traditional media companies with legacy businesses to harvest, mobile platforms offer a critical opportunity to forward-shift toward tangible growth. At MLM SF, digital media executives and vendor partners shared a variety of actionable mobile successes that indicate that, at…
This week, Yodle announced the integration of mobile-optimized websites, mobile ad bidding and distribution to its product suite. The mobile solution has already rolled out to more than 30,000 existing SMB customers. New customers can also expect to receive the…
Legendary venture capitalist Stewart Alsop of Alsop Louie Partners sat down with BIA/Kelsey analyst Matt Booth here at MLM SF to offer a glimpse into the fertile mind of a leading tech investor. Interestingly enough, one of the first things…
The "why" of SMBs going mobile is well-established. The "how" is murkier, and served as the fulcrum of a "best practices in product development" roundtable at MLM SF, with mobile developers taking different tacks in how to onboard and optimize…
"Mobile is a big part of our business," said Mihir Shah, Groupon's VP-Mobile, in an interview this afternoon with BIA/Kelsey analyst Peter Krasilovsky at the Mobile Local Media event in San Francisco. Shah said that 30 percent of Groupon's transactions…
Here in San Francisco at BIA/Kelsey's Mobile Local Media conference, a panel of three young companies offered a glimpse into the leading edge of mobile shopping and loyalty marketing. Moderator Peter Krasilovsky walked each panelist through an examination of his…
As mobile usage reaches ubiquity and revenue generation becomes the much-debated next frontier, Pandora finds itself at the nexus of this movement -- rapidly accelerating its mobile usage while iterating on its ad platform to monetize that base at a…
Mobile ads are taking off but mobile specific technology, such as LAT/Long and GPS, sometimes gets messed up when the data are transferred from publishers, said panelists participating at MLM San Francisco today. Lots of networks provide Wichita, Kansas, as…
Google sees great usage and potential for mobile with features such as Google Maps, "which is one of the most popular apps on any phone," noted Surojit Chatterjee, head of mobile search ad products, who was co-keynoting at MLM San…
Mobile technologies such as location, check-in and targeting are prime drivers of a new breed of social media sites, according to panelists speaking today at Mobile Local Media San Francisco. Check-in is the most actionable, noted Localmind CTO Beau Haugh.…
Telmetrics, a call measurement provider, has released pay-per-call best practices designed to optimize the number of quality, billable calls delivered to advertisers. "With mobile it is all about being there at the time of action -- whether it is a…
Vocus, a cloud marketing and public relations software provider, is focused on helping SMBs grow their online business with its new marketing dashboard. Business Development Manager Christine Mulquin shared with us that the company is targeting its marketing suite to…
Back in 2008, Trevor Nadeau went to the board of the company he was running, Yellow Medya, and told them that no one was buying the product they were selling, an online Yellow Pages directory. Nadeau had to come up…
Zillow's consumer-first approach, which took housing listings out of the hands of the brokerage by posting them on the Web, has since been applied in several local segments: mortgage, home and trade, insurance, recruitment, etc. Now along comes CarWoo, which…
Cox Target Media announced its acquisition of Savings.com, an online coupon website, and its British-based sister site, Savoo.co.uk today. Terms of the deal are undisclosed. Cox Target Media also owns and distributes Valpak coupons. Its print coupons from national and…
