We're all in conference prep mode and looking forward to a robust SMB Digital conference starting Monday in Chicago. We hope to see you there. In the meantime, though there isn't time to disect it meaningfully, I'd like to point…
As widely expected, we have a new iPhone. Unlike the naming convention across Apple's product line (most lately the iPad), the company is sticking with the numerical-based system. So we now have an iPhone 5. Also widely expected in the…
Newspapers have local brand credibility and content; agencies have media expertise; and neither of them do especially well selling SMBs on today's social-infused media options. That's the challenge being addressed by Speakeasy, a new local social service being owned in…
MasterCard has dived feet first into the card linked loyalty battles with the acquisition of Truaxis. The company should prove to be an anchor for MasterCard Offers Services, where it has partnered with Local Offer Network and others. Formerly known…
In the loyalty space, we're closely watching how major tech players are vertically integrating loyalty offerings into their SMB product suite. Google, Facebook and Amazon each have acquired loyalty startups and will likely make them part of their SMB suite.…
Last month, Telmetrics and xAd released a Nielsen-administered study that covered a wide range of mobile local usage data (see our interview with Telmetrics' Bill Dinan). As advertised, today they follow that up with the first of three category-level breakdowns…
We're putting the final flourishes on our SMB Digital Marketing conference Sept. 17-19 in Chicago, and they are big ones: top SMB decision makers for Google and Facebook, plus Entertainment.com CEO Dean DeBiase. These headliners are being added to 37+…
The discussion continues on the implementation of big data to improve mobile local content delivery. This is something we continue to cover and will be an important part of the mobile local monetization picture. See below for the latest; my…
A big milestone was reached last week when Bank of America launched its BankAmericaDeals loyalty and rewards product to many of its 59 million customers. The launch of the product, a partnership with Cardlytics, suggests a coming of age for…
In a reflection of the industry's ongoing interest in developing SMB promotional and loyalty services, Yodle founder Nate Stevens' venture fund announced last week that it is putting $1.7 Million into Punchey, a new mobile-oriented payments and promotions platform. The…
One of the biggest areas of mobile growth will be to help businesses establish, optimize and host a mobile presence. That includes both websites and apps, and is pronounced by the low penetration of optimized mobile sites, compared to ramping…
Trulia, which provides real estate Web and mobile leads, display advertising and real estate-oriented social media services, has followed in the footsteps of its rival, Zillow, and issued an S1 in preparation for going public and raising $75 Million. Zillow's…
Well, another shoe has dropped in the U.S. directories market. This morning Dex One and SuperMedia announced plans to merge, creating an an entity called Dex Media with roughly $3.1 billion in revenue, based on 2011 results. Dex shareholders will…
This week we caught up with Yodle CEO Court Cunningham to talk about how his company uses data and technology to gain insights that help improve results and drive down customer acquisition costs. Cunningham will be a featured speaker at…
Local advertising continues to get smarter as data sets are unlocked to provide more context around places and their interconnectedness. This goes into hyperdrive as smartphone penetration turns the corner on 50 percent of mobile users -- more signals and…
A major feature of the current crop of loyalty and rewards programs is that they link to credit card or debit card accounts. This gives them the ability to process transactions and provide deeper analytics. But a number of players…
Last week, xAd and Telmetrics released new data from a report administered by Nielsen that measures mobile local user behavior. Earlier today, we had the chance to catch up with TelmetricsCEO Bill Dinan to get some more color on the…
As you've probably heard, earlier this week Starbucks knighted Square as the core payment processing engine at its 7,000 U.S. locations. Now a few days later, its time to clear some things up and talk about the finer points: boosted…
The SMB Digital Marketing conference in Chicago Sept. 17-19 is truly shaping up to be a cutting-edge event. This week, we've added a number of top speakers to program that already includes such featured speakers as Alfred Mockett, CEO, Dex…
When eBay purchased Jack Abraham's Milo.com in December 2010, it caused some head scratching. While retail Inventory is helpful to track goods availability and has some value in developing location-based promotions, it seemed an unlikely anchor for eBay's SMB and…
