Tag: Local

Milo Launches Useful Local Product Search Android App

Milo.com announced a new Android app today for local shopping. The company claims this is the only app available in the Android Market that will search the inventory systems of local stores in real-time and tell shoppers (while they’re on the go) what’s currently in stock , where, and which local stores have the best prices.

You can see why consumers would find such an app helpful, and you can probably see why local stores would to. This can be a powerful tool for getting customers in the door, while they’re already out shopping.

The company recently told WebProNews that Milo.com gets over a million unique visitors, has tracked 2.8 million products, and is growing by an average of 185,000 items per month. In addition to that, the site also has inventory data for over 50,000 stores and covers 30,000 communities across the U.S.

"According to the U.S. Census Bureau, e-commerce currently accounts for less than 5 percent of U.S. retail sales, with the rest of sales still conducted offline," the company told us. "Milo.com is poised to own this trend, projected to amount to almost 40 percent of total retail sales by 2011 – a $1 trillion market."

The Android app uses geo-location technology to identify a user’s location and return product results based on coordinates.

"Because our users are top of mind, we knew that launching a Milo mobile app would be instrumental before the holiday shopping season—it’s ideal for both the time-strapped and price-conscious shopper," said Jack Abraham, founder and CEO of Milo.com. "Say you see the perfect pair of fall boots walking down the street. We’ll not only show you local stores that carry them, but we’ll make sure they’re available in the size and color you want, so you don’t waste a trip. And we’ll do the same for all those hot holiday toys that are just starting to hit—and fly off—your local store shelves."

Milo.com also gives users alerts notifying them when a price falls or a product becomes available.

October 29, 2010
Facebook Places “Deals” Rumor, Facebook Makes Deal with Yandex

Nick O’Neill at AllFacebook has an interesting story, claiming Facebook is testing a new "Facebook Deals" service, which would let businesses provide deals when users check-in to their brick and mortar locations.

We’re going to have to keep this one filed under "rumor". The validity of the story is questionable, as O’Neill points out himself, the email screen grab provided that is supposed to be from Facebook to a partner refers to Facebook fans as "followers", which is not a term Facebook would normally use. He says his source is "extremely reliable" though.

Facebook’s comment was simply, "As you know, we don’t comment on speculation. We have nothing to share at this time."

While this story may or may not be legitimate, the concept is certainly not far-fetched at all, though I’m not sure if businesses can’t market deals with Facebook Places without such a service.

One Facebook deal we know is legitimate (because they issued a press release about it) is one between the company and Russian search engine Yandex. The deal will see Yandex integrating Facebook info into some of its offerings.

Yandex’s front page hosts a Facebook widget, and the company will now add the data from Facebook into its blog search index. Facebook will provide Yandex with a syndication feed that gathers info about updates on its Pages and profiles created to represent public figures, businesses or organizations.

"Social networks are becoming more open to the outside world and it’s a win-win situation for everyone," said Roman Ivanov, Head of Communication Services at Yandex. "Social networking web-sites get more traffic and new users, and search engines obtain a whole load of information that boosts the search quality. We anticipate user interest in social and personal search to keep growing."

"We feel that this partnership will bring a lot of value for our Russian users as we would like the public information on Facebook to be easily searchable via Yandex," added Javier Olivan, Head of International at Facebook.

October 29, 2010
Google Maps For Android Gets New Features

Google announced the launch of a new version of Google Maps for Android that has a new design for Place page reviews, more options to filter search results, and an option for Google Latitude real-time updating.

Place Pages On Android will look pretty much like they do on the desktop. Users can see reviews from around the web and from Google users (for those posted directly to Google Maps).

Users can filter by distance and ratings, as well as by "open now", "neighborhood", or "related searches".

"In Latitude, you can also choose an experimental ‘Real-time updating’ option from an individual Latitude friend’s profile page to help meet up with them by temporarily seeing faster location updates (friends must have Maps 4.6 and Android 2.2+)," notes Google Mobile Team product manager Michael Siliski.

This new version of Google Maps for Android (version 4.6) is available for Android 1.6 and up.

Google is doing a lot of things related to local search. Just this week, the company began rolling out new search results for Places, and added Places as an option to the left panel on desktop search results pages.

October 28, 2010
Google Intros Place Search to Deliver Local Results More Efficiently

Google announced a new kind of search result called Place Search today. These results can be accessed from the new "Places" option in the left panel on Google search results pages, but unlike many of the other search options available in the panel, Google will actually return you these results for queries automatically, when it thinks you are looking for local information.

Place Search results are marked with red pins, much like you’re used to seeing on Google Maps.

Obviously, this is great news for local businesses, or at least the ones that are optimized for local search. For those who aren’t, this would appear to symbolize a crucial time to starting placing more focus on this area.

"We’ve made results like this possible by developing technology to better understand places," explains Product Manager Jackie Bavaro. "With Place Search, we’re dynamically connecting hundreds of millions of websites with more than 50 million real-world locations. We automatically identify when sites are talking about physical places and cluster links even when they don’t provide addresses and use different names (‘stubb’s bbq’ is the same as ‘stubbs bar-b-que’)."

"One of the great things about our approach is that it makes it easier to find a comprehensive view of each place," adds Bavaro. "In our new layout you’ll find many more relevant links on a single results page—often 30 or 40. Instead of doing eight or 10 searches, often you’ll get to the sites you’re looking for with just one search. In our testing Place Search saves people an average of two seconds on searches for local information."

If Google uses location info from mobile devices along with this, it could make mobile search much more powerful and useful by simply saving time. Usually, when you’re on the go, anything that saves time is helpful.

The feature is only starting to roll out, so if you don’t have access to it just yet, you can check it out here.

October 27, 2010
Testimonials From Your Site Can Appear on Google Place Pages

Last month, Google announced that it is now using Rich Snippets for local search. Webmasters with pages that in some way pertain to real world places, can utilize these to reference those places and optimize for local search results.

As you may know, Google Place Paages contain links to reviews for businesses, and Mike Blumenthal has discovered an interesting nugget in Google’s Rich Snippets for Local Search FAQ that pertains to this. The tenth question is: "How will Google treat businesses posting testimonials with review mark up on their own site? Will these be treated as a review by the Place Page?"

Google’s answer to this is, "Testimonials will be treated as business reviews on the Place Page."

So, naturally, there are questions about people putting up fake testimonials to make their businesses look better than the real public perception would dictate.

Blumenthal says, "The implications of this are profound in terms of the impact that these testimonials will have on review count. The impact that they will have on tone of the reviews, sentiment analysis and rank are yet to be seen but if they are handled exactly as current reviews are, this too will be profound."

People have been putting testimonials on their sites for years, and really there’s no way for consumers to tell how real they are, so that’s not really different. However, when these are put on Google’s Place Pages, a place where many, many people will see as they simply search for local business listings, they could be a little more persuasive.

As Greg Sterling points out at Screenwerk, popular review site Yelp doesn’t include testimonials from companies’ sites. Google recently stopped showing Yelp results on Place Pages.

October 12, 2010
A New Option for Businesses to Levarage Facebook Places

Social app developer Fan Appz has just announced that it has integrated its platform with Facebook Places. The company says this gives businesses "a powerful and easy way to create highly relevant offers based on a customer’s offline activities."

That doesn’t sound bad.

This would be he first social marketing platform to integrate with Facebook Places, according to Fan Appz. It will allow consumer brands, retailers and local businesses to reach, engage and reward any customer that checks-in via Facebook.

This is exactly the kind of thing that makes Facebook such a potent weapon in the check-in space. You’ve got the enormous user base, the brand recognition, and the developer community creating new opportunities for businesses, giving Facebook Places a distinct advantage over competitors like Foursquare, Gowalla, and the rest.

"Fan Appz has seen tremendous growth over the past year, as tens of thousands of businesses have used our platform to engage and build stronger relationships with customers," said CEO Jon Siegal. "With Fan Appz Offers for Facebook Places, companies can now take their Facebook marketing to the next level by rewarding fans for their interactions in the physical world."

FanAppz also makes a note that its suite of solutions is "highly measurable", which is obviously an asset when you’re talking about social media marketing.

September 14, 2010
Yahoo Expands Local Listing Partnership with Dex One

Yahoo announced today that it has expanded its partnership with Dex One to allow listings on Yahoo Local. "This broadens the reach of Dex One’s local advertiser network, providing their clients with greater exposure in local communities and more consumers with detailed information on local businesses," a spokesperson for Yahoo tells WebProNews.

All businesses who advertise on Dex One’s DexKnows site will be able to show up in Yahoo Local search results. The expanded partnership doubles the geographic area covered by the original partnership, which started in 2007.

The original agreement covered the 14-state region where Dex One is the official print directory publisher for Qwest.

"Yahoo! is committed to helping local businesses unlock the potential of digital advertising," says Regan Senkarik, VP of Channel Sales at Yahoo. "Expanding our agreement with Dex One will provide their clients with greater exposure in local communities and more consumers with detailed information on local businesses."

"This strengthens a great strategic relationship with Yahoo! and broadens the reach of our local advertiser network," said Sean Greene, SVP of interactive at Dex One. "Through the network our clients’ online business information appears not only on DexKnows but also in prime locations on many of the Web’s most popular search sites, including Yahoo! Local."

On a somewhat related note, Yahoo today announced that its Yahoo Search Marketing advertisers can now begin their transition to Microsoft adCenter – a product of the Search Alliance between those two companies.

August 31, 2010
Facebook Places, the Competition (Including Google) & Your Business

A great deal of attention has been put on what Facebook Places means for the future of other check-in apps. This discussion has been around as long as the rumors of Facebook launching a location feature, which have been swirling for quite some time.

Will you check in with Facebook Places? Let us know.

A lot has also been made of the increasing competition between Facebook and Google, Facebook Places adds a whole other dimension to this battle.

Google Places and Facebook Places

Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land compares Facebook Places to the similarly titled Google Places (a comparison that will draw a lot of attention going forward as the competition between Google and Facebook continues to heat up). As Sterling notes, businesses can claim their pages on both and use them for promotion. He writes:

"Facebook’s Chris Cox told me that the company has created Places pages for local businesses (hundreds, thousands?). Eventually Fan Pages and Facebook Places will merge in a majority of cases. And, as mentioned, Facebook Places pages will live on the Web as well in mobile, though the locus (so to speak) of activity is bound to be mobile.

Facebook Places will replace Facebook Fan Pages for local businesses once a business has claimed its Facebook Place page. All of these pages and the product itself relies on the Localeze database, which is also at the core of the much-less-developed Twitter Places.

Businesses should win regardless, as now they have more massive places to market their businesses online and via mobile that will potentially reach a lot of people.

Bing Maps and Facebook Places

The graphic Facebook showed in its blog post announcing Facebook Places showed Google Mps, but Bing Maps has a great presence throughout the feature. Facebook uses Bing Maps to pinpoint everyone’s location-based experiences.

"Select the Places button, find the location where you are and check-in," says Chris Pendleton of Bing. "Just like that, the check-in will flow to your profile on Facebook.com complete with a Bing Map, a pin of your location and any commentary you’ve added to your check-in."

Bing gets to pick up its nice bit of branding here, which could help it in its own competition with Google

Effects for Fousquare (and other check-in apps)?

Foursquare has pretty much dominated the check-in app space up to this point, but half a billion users is going to be hard to compete with. Here’s what CEO Dennis Crowley told Silicon Alley Insider:

We already allow users to publish their 4SQ checkins into the Facebook News Feed and we’ll eventually going to allow users to push them into the Facebook Checkin Feed. I’d imagine we’ll prob pull FB checkins into 4SQ too. We’re in the middle of a redesign and some new feature launches, so we’re going to get thru those before getting started on FB integration.

Foursquare (and other apps in this space) still might be in trouble. The phrase "check-in fatigue" has already been thrown around a lot. Whether or not people will continue to use other services in addition to checking in with Facebook (assuming that they do use Facebook’s feature) remains to be seen.

It does seem interesting that there is a 4 inside of a square in Facebook Places’ logo (above right), as Alexia Tsotsis points out.

When asked about a potential Android release for Facebook Places, a Facebook representative would only say, "At this time, the Places application is available to people in the United States with mobile access to the Facebook application for iPhone or touch.facebook.com. Places is also available on browsers with HTML5 Geolocation, which is supported on devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch, Android devices and the Blackberry Torch. Places will be rolled out more broadly and to other mobile devices and the web in the future."

For more on how Facebook Places stands to benefit your business, read here.

Do you like the idea of Facebook Places or do you think it’s a waste of time? Share your thoughts.

August 27, 2010
Yelp Wins: Less Search Visibility

It looks like Yelp may have gotten its wish – for Google not to use its data for Place Pages. It is still unclear to me how less search engine visibility is a good thing, but, Google Place Pages appear to have eliminated Yelp.

This was first spotted by TechCrunch, and is as of yet unconfirmed, but doing various searches (including one I did for a previous article on the subject, which used to return Yelp content), Yelp content appears to be gone from Place Pages.

Now Yelp gets less exposure from Google, which dominates the search market. Even in Google’s organic listings, Place Pages are getting a great deal of prominence. In this query, I couldn’t even find a Yelp result without scrolling down. Meanwhile, the Place Page sits right at the top with a big image and other formatted text to draw attention to it:

Earlier this month, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman and Google VP of Product Management John Hanke shared a stage at TechCrunch’s Social Currency CrunchUp. Stoppelman expressed Yelp’s disdain for the situation, while Hanke explained that Google aims to serve the best content to its users.

The situation could be compared to the Google News debate that has been going on for years. It’s simply a case of Google providing links and snippets for a site.

Now Google users can get more exposure (and links) to Yelp competitors like Urbanspoon, Citysearch, Yahoo Local, and others. What a win for Yelp.

Do a lot of people use Yelp? Sure. As many as Google? I don’t think so. I have to wonder how many Yelp users have traditionally gotten there through Google. With less prominence in Google, I suspect less people will go to Yelp.

August 26, 2010
Using and Attracting Customers with Facebook Places

Facebook Places is going to be huge for businesses. It already is. You’ve probably been hearing about all of the opportunities that come with check-in apps like Foursquare, Gowalla, etc. Facebook has half a billion users. This takes things to a whole new level.

Do you intend to take advantage of Facebook Places for your business? Tell us about it.

Now, not all of those users are using Places or even Facebook on mobile devices, but that doesn’t mean these users won’t see updates about people checking into your business from their friends.

For the people that do use Places from their mobile devices, they’re presented with a list of nearby locations to check into any time they push the Places link. If you’re nearby, that means you. Clearly this opens a huge window for enticing customers to check into your place. You can offer discounts or other offers/incentives for some pretty good branding and word-of-mouth marketing.

Once a person checks into your business, that is put into the news feed of all of their friends. Those friends (not to mention the person checking in) can then go to your Place page and "like" it. I’m sure you can see the potential this feature has.

Localeze provides business listings for Facebook Places, so that’s something else to consider. "Facebook is quickly becoming an important piece of a local business’ footprint giving them more visibility for current and potential customers," said Localeze President Jeff Beard. "Facebook Places is a very powerful social tool for businesses and consumers alike."

WebProNews blog partner Chris Silver Smith has a good article about how local businesses can take advantage of Facebook Places, and simply getting familiar with them from a business standpoint. As mentioned in a previous article, Greg Sterling also has an interesting comparison between Facebook Places and Google Places.

There has been a lot of talk about how Facebook Places will impact Foursquare, and the jury is still out on that one. Foursquare appears to be going along for the ride, letting its service be integrated with Facebook’s. Still, "check-in fatigue" may come into the picture, and users (Facebook has many more) may find it less and less necessary to utilize third party services to check in. Facebook could very well steamroll the "friendly competition".

There’s an outside chance that Facebook could really help Foursquare and the like. Foursquare’s numbers reportedly shot up on the launch of Facebook Places, but I suspect this is just a getting-to-know-you kind of affair as the check-in concept was introduced to a much bigger user base. It will be interesting to see how those numbers hold up over time.

As a business, I wouldn’t immediately start ignoring Foursquare, though you may want to consider putting Facebook front and center when it comes to your customer check-in strategy. There’s a much better chance your customers are Facebook users than Foursquare users.

Will Foursquare reamain relevant? Tell us what you think.

August 20, 2010
Google Makes Reputation Management Easier for Local Businesses

Google is now letting businesses respond to reviews posted on their Place Pages in Google Maps. This should be huge for reputation management, particularly as Google continues to place increased emphasis on these pages.

Do you monitor your Place Page for negative reviews? Let us know.

"Engaging with the people who have shared their thoughts about your business is a great way to get to know your customers and find out more," says John Maguire of the Google Place Page team. "Both positive and negative feedback can be good for your business and help it grow (even though it’s sometimes hard to hear). By responding, you can build stronger relationships with existing and prospective customers."

"For example, a thoughtful response acknowledging a problem and offering a solution can often turn a customer who had an initially negative experience into a raving supporter," he continues. "A simple thank you or a personal message can further reinforce a positive experience. Ultimately, business owner responses give you the opportunity to learn what you do well, what you can do better, and show your customers that you’re listening."

Google actually has a user guide with some tips on how to handle your responses, just in case customer service isn’t your strong point.

You must have your listing verified before you are able to respond to reviews.

Yelp is probably going to love this, considering they already have something of a beef with how Google uses its content.

How important is it to be able to respond to reviews on Google Place Pages? Share your thoughts.

August 9, 2010
When Did Search Engine Visibility Become a Bad Thing?

Google and Yelp have had some issues for sometime, following a failed acquisition attempt, but it’s rare that the tensions between the two companies are aired for an audience. That is just what happened at TechCrunch’s Social Currency Crunchup event.

Would you be happy with the level of Google visiblity Yelp gets? Let us know.

Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman and Google VP of Product Management John Hanke shared a stage and talked a bit about their situation. TechCrunch’s MG Siegler shares his account of the experience here. Essentially, what it boils down to is that Yelp isn’t thrilled with Google showing its content on Google Places, which the company is heavily pushing these days. Yelp accounts for a significant amount of the information Google shows on its Place pages. Siegler writes:

Yelp can’t like that too much. In fact, we’ve heard they’re particularly unhappy because they used to have a deal with Google for this data, but they pulled out of that deal a couple years ago. But Google decided to use Yelp’s data anyway simply by crawling it. Yelp can’t stop them from doing that unless they want to delist themselves from Google — a move which could kill them.

In my experience, Google Place Pages do offer a lot of Yelp content, but they also offer reviews from other sources like Urbanspoon, Citysearch, etc. Furthermore, they link to the content. If a user wants to see the full Yelp content for that listing, they have to clickthrough to Yelp.

This appears to be just another version of the ongoing Google News/aggregation argument. People that may have gone to Yelp before, may go to Google Place Pages and see a wider variety of review content, but Google Place Pages might also send more people to Yelp that otherwise would not have gone. Not everyone is a Yelp user. Google has a LOT of users, many of which search for local businesses all of the time.

Yelp has a solid selection of mobile offerings, including apps for BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre, as well as the Yelp mobile site at m.yelp.com. Yelp should focus on improving its own service and promoting those improvements as well as the use of its mobile apps. If Yelp wants consumers to go to Yelp before Google, they need to convince people to get their mobile apps on their home screens.

As for the non-mobile web, perhaps Yelp should focus on a similar strategy through social media, browser plug-ins, etc. (not that they’re not doing this). They need to convince people that they should be the go-to place. So far, Yelp has done a pretty good job. It’s got a solid user base and brand recognition. It seems to me that Google exposure would only add to this, and should be embraced. Yelp is in the top ten organic listings on Google for almost every local review query I enter. They’re doing something right.

Google has always maintained its goal is to show users the best content, and Yelp should feel privileged that it is held in that regard. That could change. The space Yelp operates in will only get more crowded with mobile apps, especially with the whole check-in app boom (which Google is also placing more focus on , I might add). A lot of content providers (and Yelp competitors) would probably kill to get the Google exposure they do.

Local Businesses Pay Attention

It’s important for businesses to understand that Google Places is making it harder to hide from a bad reputation. Place Pages are bringing in reviews from Yelp and a variety of other places, and keeping putting them in the spotlight. Keep an eye on them.

Place Pages offer some pretty useful tools for businesses, and Google is continuously making changes. For example, earlier this year, Google let businesses start instantly posting data to their pages, allowing for the addition of updates, coupons, announcements, etc. This can be incredibly useful for attracting customers based on timely deals (especially in the age of Groupon).

Tag Advertising is another example. This lets businesses pay to use tags to highlight their listings on Google Maps. They also offer customized QR Codes.

It’s also important for businesses to take note of the increased focus Google is putting on Place Pages. The newest version of Google Maps for Android lets people put a Places icon right on their home screen (separate from the regular Google Maps icon), for all intents and purposes, turning Places into its own app (another reason why Yelp needs to focus on selling its mobile apps to consumers). Android sales have been skyrocketing, by the way.

How important do you consider Google Places to your business? Comment here.

August 4, 2010
Microsoft Launches Online Circular Ads for MSN Local

Microsoft Advertising has unveiled new localized deals through interactive online circulars (like those ads that fall out of your newspaper, the company notes) as part of MSN Local Edition.

The site is geo-targeted, so only location-relevant circulars will be shown to consumers.

Site visitors will be able to rotate through the different circulars on one screen, as well as browse and flip through them just like print versions. They will also be able to search for products across circulars, add items to a shopping list, find retailer locations with Bing Maps, and share offers with friends through Facebook, Twitter, and Windows Live.

The back-end data for the circulars comes from ShopLocal. As long as retailers update their info on ShopLocal, their circulars will be refreshed. If they’re not current, they won’t be shown.

Microsoft says it intends to leverage more of its assets (including mobile) as it evolves its circular offerings. Advertisers need to talk to their account execs if they want to take advantage of this kind of offering.

August 2, 2010
Google Focusing On Check-In Services with Google Places API

Google is placing a great deal of emphasis on check-in services, with regards to Google Places. This could mean some interesting things for businesses.

"We have been delighted with the enthusiasm we have seen for the Places API, and the innovative ways in which developers would like to use it," says Google Maps API Product Manager Thor Mitchell. "We have seen applications that offer check-in to places and need to identify an individual place at which a user is currently located, applications looking to show a user Places around them, and applications looking to offer a search and browse experience for Places similar to that offered on Google Maps."

"We are going to focus initially on check-in applications," says Mitchell. "These are the applications that we feel the API currently caters to well, and we are excited to work with developers building these applications to understand their requirements, and ensure that we are offering them the best possible experience."

Google says it has been reaching out to developers who have expressed interest in building check-in apps using the Places API. This includes developers working on client apps for the Buzz API.

Check-in services are gaining a lot of attention, and are creating new and interesting opportunities for brick and mortar businesses that just weren’t available before. Combine that with the power of Google Maps and Google’s increasingly heavy push of Google Places, and this has the potential to be very powerful. With Google’s APIs, the consumers are going to have many more access points, particularly from their mobile devices.

It would also not be surprising if this was heavily tied to that "Google Me" project that has been speculated on so heavily in recent weeks.

Earlier this week, Google updated its Maps for Mobile on Android devices, making a Places icon available. This essentially turns Places into its own app for all intents and purposes.

July 30, 2010
Booyah Launches Check-Ins for Products in MyTown

Booyah, one of the companies gaining buzz in the check-in service space, has announced a new product check-in feature for its MyTown game/service.

With the feature, users can use their iPhone camera to scan barcodes of products to unlock points and earn virtual goods, as the company puts it, "creating a game out of real life items."

"We first made the location check-in fun," says Booyah CEO Keith Lee. "Now we’re making products fun. It adds a whole new layer on top of the MyTown experience."

"It’s a holy grail for marketers and brands to have their target audience actually hold their products in their hands," adds Lee. "It’s as close as you will get before point of sale. Not to mention that a consumer’s product check-in history is invaluable data."

This could make the whole check-in trend all the more appealing to businesses looking to sell their products. MyTown already boasts over two and a half million active users.

MyTown lets users "buy and own" their favorite real-life locations, and collect rent when other people check-in to their shops.

July 26, 2010
Local Merchants Utilizing Social Media More as Confidence Remains Flat

This week, MerchantCircle shared the results of its "Merchant Confidence Index," in which about 10,000 local merchants shared their confidence levels in the current economy. While confidence has remained generally flat, the index also found that many of these merchants are more prominently using social media as a free online marketing tool to increase their customer base and revenue.

"Our recent survey reflects continued uncertainty among merchants. Economic outlook has decreased to roughly the same level as November 2009, with most business owners continuing to think the worst is yet to come," said Darren Waddell, vice president of marketing for MerchantCircle. "However, we were pleased to see that most aren’t planning for layoffs or pay cuts for employees. Small business owners are continuing to become web savvy in their marketing by increasingly augmenting traditional advertising with free methods like social networking to generate additional business."

Among the findings of the survey were the following numbers for how people are promoting their businesses with various tools. It is interesting to see how little respondents are using some of the services attracting the most attention these days (mainly the ones furthest to the right):

Still, awareness of location-based services is on the rise. For example, MerchantCircle says today, 16% of merchants are familiar with Foursquare, whereas in Q1 of 2010, the number was only 8%. Likewise, 32% of merchants that are aware of Foursquare are using it to promote their business, compared to 25% in Q1.

It is worth noting that this is the first time social networking has eclipsed all other marketing channels to become the most popular among survey participants since MerchantCircle has been doing the survey.

July 16, 2010
Google Announces Partnerships with Ford and General Motors

Google announced that it has extended its Google Maps Send-to-Car service to Ford and GM vehicles. This applies to Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles in the US that are enabled with Ford SYNC, as well as OnStar equipped GM vehicles, which include models from Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Hummer, Pontiac, Saab and Saturn.

Users of the Send-to-Car service can send business listings or addresses found on Google Maps directly to their cars. The expansion of the service is great news for local businesses, and perhaps makes it all the more important to hone their Google Maps presence.

"Drivers can then use their car maker’s turn-by-turn navigation system to be guided to their selected destination. With today’s additions, drivers can send destinations from Google Maps directly to their connected vehicles in 19 countries and more than 20 different brands," says Markus Mühlbauer, Engineering and Product Manager. "In the US alone, Send-To-Car is now available on more than 15 car brands and we hope to see even more partners join us soon."

"We think this is a great convenience for drivers – Prepare your route at your desk, send the destination to your car, and safely enjoy your ride – hands on the wheel, eyes on the road," he adds. "We also like to think that in the age of green driving, not having to print paper directions anymore is a great start of a green trip!"

Now imagine if Google gets Android into that many vehicles one day, and consider the potential for apps that cater to the driving experience. Also consider that app-making is getting simpler.

July 14, 2010
Groupon and McClatchy Team Up on Deals at Newspaper Sites

Groupon has signed a national agreement with The McClatchy Company to distribute exclusive content to McClatchy’s sites in 28 U.S. markets.

Visitors to McClatchy sites will get deals from Groupon that aren’t even available at Groupon.com. These will initially launch in Sacramento and Kansas City, with other regions following over the coming months.

In a joint release, the two companies explain their motivation:

For McClatchy, the agreement provides a key component in a local marketplace initiative designed to bring together consumers looking for bargains with merchants seeking to increase their sales.

For Groupon the agreement is part of a larger initiative to offer a new, incremental revenue stream to major publishers. According to Sean Smyth, Groupon’s VP of Business Development, Groupon enables publishers to seize consumer interest and generate buzz in their local markets by presenting readers with high-value, unique local market experiences.

"Groupon has pioneered and perfected the daily deal structure in markets of all sizes across the globe,” said Sean Smyth, Groupon’s VP of Business Development. "As leaders and innovators in the space we continue to ask ourselves what’s next. Providing merchants with major alternative channels to run deals is vital. McClatchy is an ideal partnership that blends our respective strengths to provide consumers with unbeatable savings on great experiences in their local markets."

Groupon says it has saved its subscribers over $285 million so far. This deal could give that number a big boost.

July 1, 2010
Local.com Pays $5m for Local Ad Solution Provider Octane360

Local search site Local.com has acquired Octane360, a provider of domain-based local ad solutions for small businesses, domain portfolio owners, agencies and channel partners.

Local.com is paying $5 million in cash and stock, with an earnout of up to $5.9 million if certain performance criteria are met in the two-year period following the closing.

"This transaction represents a significant expansion of Local.com’s product suite and technology platform, allowing us to manage the scaled acquisition, creation and deployment of geo-category targeted small business domains," said Heath Clarke, Local.com chairman and CEO. "Furthermore, Octane Experts’ content marketplace allows for the scaled procurement of proprietary, curated content, thereby enhancing the SEO value of local domains under our management."

Local.com says with Octane360, it can offer the following services:

– Large scale targeting and registration of geo-category based local website domains

– Small business and geo-category website creation, hosting and management

– An ad exchange to manage the selection and deployment of ad inventory across all Local.com Owned & Operated and Network sites, as well as third-party and directly owned domain portfolio properties

– A content marketplace to allow for the management of geo-category content written for advertising customers or Local.com’s directly owned portfolio properties

Octane360 will become a wholly-owned division of Local.com.

July 1, 2010
WhitePages Releases New Version of Local Business Search Offering

WhitePages.com has released a new version of its Business Search today. It includes contact info for over 15 million local businesses around the U.S. as well as a Store Locator providing one-click access to neighborhood contact info for over a million local branches of national chains.

The angle WhitePages is taking is that it is replacing the need for search engines like Google and Bing for finding business contact info. I don’t know if that will translate into such actions by search engine users, but WhitePages certainly hopes people will see it that way.

"The frustrating days of scrolling through search engine results, clumsy store locators, or phone books for simple local business contact information officially comes to an end today with the launch of WhitePages Business Search," says Jason Milstead, director of WhitePages Business Search. "Web users that want to connect with websites should use Google or Bing. But if they simply want practical, easy to find contact information to connect with a local store of a business chain, doctor or dentist, WhitePages Business Search is the best resource."

"Every day WhitePages seeks new ways to make it easy for consumers to look up contact information for people and businesses online without surfing non-authoritative sites or dialing 411," said Alex Algard, founder and CEO of WhitePages. "The new WhitePages Business Search takes us one step closer to helping everyone quickly and efficiently connect with both people and local businesses."

Obviously Google and Bing are not going to lose too much sleep over this announcement, but WhitePages.com did have over 13 million unique visitors in May by Compete’s count.

June 24, 2010
MerchantCircle Gives Merchants Their Own Version of Foursquare

Local business social network MerchantCircle has launched a "Mayors" program to its 1.4 million members, no doubt an attempt to capitalize one the growing popularity of Fourquare.

"As you know, local players who focus on the consumer space have introduced gaming elements, like check-ins and badges, to add fun and interest and drive traffic to their local networks.," a representative for MerchantCircle tells WebProNews. "Yet none of those players have turned the model around and made local social networking into a game for merchants…until now."

"The project was designed to make MerchantCircle more fun and engaging, and help drive new memberships," the rep says. "The numbers show that even in the early stages, it’s working."

After just two weeks of testing, MerchantCircle says it saw a 123% increase in overall merchant-to-merchant connections overall, and a 59% increase in invitations to join the network. Merchants who become ‘Mayor’ of their city through in-network activities are rewarded with free advertising around the MerchantCircle network.

"A running leaderboard keeps the competition from getting stale in 7500+ cities and towns around the U.S. Currently the point system is simple, and in the coming months, MerchantCircle will introduce new ways to earn points and climb the leaderboard and become Mayor," the company says.

MerchantCircle has been doing some interesting things with local businesses. A while back they announced a partnership with Demand Media on local business Q&A search.

June 23, 2010