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.…
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…
We've been thinking for a long time about having a mobile-centric event that wouldn't get lost in all the converging agendas of our mega Interactive Local Media conferences. That's what we'll do June 27 at our Mobile Local Media event…
Before there were Meetups, Great Courses, TakeLessons.com and online dating services, The Learning Annex held sway. Launched 30 years ago in New York City, The Learning Annex provided classes on everything under the sun, and a way to meet people.…
Amazon doesn't usually speak at industry gatherings. But that was before it needed to reach out to the advertising community to sell display ads on its sites, ads on Kindle, national and local offers on Kindle, and extend its promotional…
Not to be cynical about it, but charity has always been great for business. "Charitable marketing," or "altruistic marketing," has been embraced by many of the leading brands, from McDonald's and Ben & Jerry's to the National Football League. It…
Constant Contact has made a really big bet on presence management with the acquisition today of SinglePlatform, a provider of a one-stop "write once, read everywhere" presence management network that provides parsed searching capabilities and services for 600,000 SMBs, including…
Mobile local promotion and wallet services that marry offers to linked credit card accounts and track usage are proliferating. A partial roster of players includes Plum Rewards, MyFavEats, RewardLoop, AirPay and PunchCard. They're all fighting for a share of smartphone…
Elevation Partners' Roger McNamee -- friend of Bono's, the lead in the failed resurrection of Palm and a winner in the Facebook IPO to the tune of $1.5 billion -- is known as a contrarian thinker. He did not disappoint…
Loyalty and engagement programs are now flooding the local ecosystem. They see themselves as the next step up from daily deals. At the same time, they hope to be more effective than "buy 10 get one free punch cards," according…
Google Offers has just celebrated its first anniversary and now has a presence in 40 markets, says Group Products Manager Nitin Mangtini, who was speaking Tuesday at the Street Fight Summit West conference in San Francisco. Mangtini, who also spoke…
Zagat is Google's great equalizer against Yelp. Google has now demonstrated why it paid $151 million for Zagat last September by including Zagat, which formerly cost $4.95 a month (or $24.95 per year), as part of its new rollout of…
ScoutMob, the two-and-a-half-year-old mobile-centric deals company, has landed a new $3.25 million round to develop its technology base and add more markets. It is currently in 13 cities and has more than 1 million subscribers. The company, which had previously…
Local display doesn’t get as much attention as search for SMBs, but we know that in many situations, it can complement search campaigns, or even produce better results. No one pushes harder on this than PaperG, which has developed a…
Are deals still being driven by shares, posts, likes and other social media features in an era of Groupon and LivingSocial Super Bowl ads? Yes, definitely, according to Second Street Media, which held a webinar with The Washington Post last…
The June calendar is definitely filling in. It is the most active month in memory. I’ll be attending five events -- three in San Francisco, two in San Diego. As Richard Rogers says: “June is bustin’ out all over.” In…
That was quick. Yahoo’s radical shift to a new Commerce/ Marketplaces strategy -- announced in mid April -- has abruptly ended with the resignation of CEO and former PayPal head Scott Thompson, and SVP Sam Shrauger, his PayPal colleague, who…
Explaining the basics of local and social marketing to clients and prospects is a tough task for companies, which might come off as patronizing. Why not give them a book? A couple of years ago, Yodle CEO Court Cunningham wrote…
Groupon Rewards -- "the easiest rewards program in the world" -- rolled out nationally this week after tests in 36 markets that began in October. The product is Groupon’s answer to the emerging “transaction marketing” space that many believe will…
