The rollout of Facebook Places was supposed to spell certain doom for check-in companies such as Foursquare and GoWalla, and the whole check-in and location-based services infrastructure, right? But it hasn’t exactly happened that way, says DoubleDutch CEO Lawrence Coburn,…
A theme has emerged from many companies we've talked to lately; building tools to drive and influence consumer decisions at (or nearer to) the point of purchase. This isn't terribly new and of course is a function of the portability…
From the Friday afternoon A/V department, here is a good lesson in viral marketing and also a glimpse of smartphone evolution. NYC band Atomic Tom shot a seemingly impromptu (though likely produced) subway jam session, using only iPhones as instruments.…
In case you missed them, here are a few headlines and links to recent posts on our Mobile Local Media blog. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed here, and the e-mail alert here. -- Jamming on the Subway: There’s an App…
Placecast is announcing that its ShopAlerts platform will power location-based push marketing for O2 in the U.K. This is its first major carrier deal, joining existing deals with U.S. brands such as The North Face. Placecast (see past coverage) divides…
In what I'm starting to call bar code week, the latest is RedLaser's addition of QR codes to its existing UPC code scanning functionality. In a recent list of recommended mobile apps to scan QR codes, I left out RedLaser only because…
In the ongoing developments of mobile bar code readers, Google recently launched a QR code generator for any Web site, based on its link shortener tool Goo.gl. Link shortening incumbent bit.ly has now responded to Google's entrance to its space…
XAd today raised $4 million from Emergence Capital in order to build out its LocalAdXchange network and its technology platform. The company continues to cross milestones including profitability and 20 percent growth. It's also built a strong backbone of mobile…
Today I had the chance to speak with navigation software provider TomTom about product strategies in a quickly evolving mobile technology environment. The company was an early mover in the mobile navigation space including some of the first in-car navigation systems…
This just in (via Bloomberg), Marissa Mayer, Google VP of search products, will switch roles and now head up all local and location products. These are increasingly important areas of development for Google as evidenced by its public moves and…
In case you missed them, here are a few headlines and links to recent posts on our Mobile Local Media blog. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed here, and the e-mail alert here. -- R.I.P. GOOG-411 -- Mobile DTV Hits and…
Google announced today on its official blog that it will pull the plug on the very cool but underused GOOG-411 free directory assistance. Underuse was not the cited reason though. As we've written many times since it launched in 2007, the…
I'm at the CTIA Mobile Conference in San Francisco this week, where there's a healthy mix of product expos, sponsored events and the requisite booth babes. But amid all the gadgetry, there are long halls of session rooms where countless…
We've been paying lots of attention to the emerging fields of voice and visual search. This comes down to the notion that the mobile device has eyes and ears. As mobile search, apps and games evolve, they'll better leverage these…
In case you missed them, here are a few headlines and links to recent posts on our Mobile Local Media blog. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed here, and the e-mail alert here. -- Google’s New Link Shortener (and Secret QR…
Google is out with a new more widely accessible version of its link shortening tool at goo.gl. Like longstanding competitors bit.ly and Tiny URL, it will shorten any link to be used in various social networking and communications scenarios. It claims to…
PhoneTell cofounder Steve Larsen just took the stage at Mobilize to announce the coming of its iPhone and BlackBerry apps, and next week's opening of a series A funding round. BlackBerry will be out in the next few weeks and…
I'm at GigaOm's Mobilize ’10 conference today, where Skyhook Wireless CEO Ted Morgan joined a procession of morning presentations to espouse the collision of mobile, social and local. Geolocation is clearly a hot area but not a new topic --…
Surojit Chatterjee announced today on Google's Mobile Ads Blog that the company has launched a new format for hyperlocal mobile ads. After searching for a business, ads will now tell you how far the closest location is, indicated by both…
In the local media forecast we just released, U.S. mobile local ad revenues are projected to grow from $213 million in 2009 to $2.02 billion in 2014, a compound annual growth rate of 57 percent. This is the location targeted…
