As expected, Google just announced its mobile payment system called Google Wallet at a press event in NYC. This was accompanied by the wider rollout of the parallel mobile offers program, Google Offers (previously only live in Portland, Oregon). Wallet will bring…
Today at TechCrunch Disrupt in NYC, Google's Marissa Mayer revealed that 20 percent of searches across Google properties are local. What's more (literally), that number bumps up to 40 percent when we're talking about mobile searches. Of course numbers like…
JiWire is out with its latest quarterly Insights report, uncovering user demand and adoption for location based services, mobile shopping, and deals. For those unfamiliar, JiWire operates a location based ad network via public wi-fi and mobile. Highlights include 79…
Gearing up for our Deals 3D conference in July, my StreetFight column this month looks at some of the recent developments in the collision of local deals and mobile, otherwise known loosely as flash deals. As we've written, these independently…
During BIA/Kelsey’s ILM East conference in March, a series of mobile sessions were held in which leaders of the mobile industry were interviewed on stage (see previous post on Foursquare GM Evan Cohen’s keynote). WillowTree Apps CEO Tobias Dengel was…
We've written a bunch about Shopkick and its strategy to monetize location-based services and check-ins -- an area where there's still lots of question marks. Its biggest claim to fame is automatic check-ins that make it more mainstream friendly. For…
There were lots of announcements made this week at Google's I/O developer conference in San Francisco, but the thing that stood out most for me was the unveiling of the Chromebook. Running on Chrome OS, it represents a computing paradigm…
Unless you search via toolbar or live in a cave, you'll come across Google's home page pretty early in your day. But if you haven't seen it yet today, check it out. Google has taken one of its famed home…
You've probably heard by now that Microsoft has acquired Skype in an all cash deal for a whopping $8.5 billion. It's Microsoft's largest acquisition to date, and a killer exit for Andreessen Horowitz and others who made a then-controversial late…
Today at the Social-Loco conference in San Francisco, Google's Marissa Mayer announced a formalized version of the previously launched Business Photos in select cities. Meant to be "street view for interiors" it will seek to capture the insides of local…
xAD is becoming quite the contender in the emerging crop of mobile local ad networks. Loosely in the same category as WHERE and CityGrid, the company works with mobile publishers and advertisers to place ads that have local relevance and…
Following posts over the past week (here and here) about app development and adoption, Germany-based research2guidance is out with fresh data showing that Android will overtake iOS in app volume by August 2011. The intersection will happen around 425,000 apps,…
In what's sure to be a controversial title (and a bit misguided), Forrester has released a report called "Why The 'Web Versus Application' Debate Is Irrelevant To Your Mobile Product Strategy." More of a headline grabber than an actual premise,…
I've been watching over the past few days as three separate studies were released, each with a different angle on the growth of mobile apps. These are generally orbiting the AppNation conference that took place this week in San Francisco.…
In an increasingly connected multi-device world, all things cloud-based are getting lots of attention. For the same underlying reasons, social sharing is hot. That includes everything from Tweets and status updates to photo sharing apps like Instagram. A mashup of…
Google has released results of a study filled with positive results on smartphone usage. Known as "The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users," it focuses on search and search-related ad performance. According to the study, 71 percent of smartphone users search…
We've known about Google Offers for some time -- the deals product that Google started working on in the wake of its failed bid for Groupon. Today Google is announcing its launch in Portland, and forthcoming availability in NYC and…
Foursquare Cofounder Dennis Crowley spoke at Where 2.0 yesterday on the ongoing theme of innovating "beyond the check-in." Though lots of companies have taken this in directions such as checking in to TV shows, he remains focused on the "relationship between…
We've written in the past about Convergent Mobile and its SMS marketing for small businesses. One of the bright spots is giving SMBs their own keyword -- branded to their business and promoted through signage, menus, Yellow Pages ads or…
You may have heard by now that eBay has acquired WHERE for an undisclosed sum -- continuing an acquisition streak of companies that appear to triangulate a mobile local strategy (Milo, RedLaser, WHERE). There is lots to talk about here…
