Mobile Archives

Check Out the SMX Local Search Advantage Workshop Speaker Roster

Tweet I’m very pleased with the group of speakers that have come together for the SMX West Local Search Advantage workshop on March 2. My view is that every person thinking about going to SMX West should be in this session. It’s going to be a great day of tactical and practical information addressing a broad […]

How Do We Think about Location Once Location Is Everywhere?

Tweet In the category of half-formed thoughts . . . I see two things going on with location at a high level in the market. First, many marketers and brands still don’t “get” location. Either they don’t see it as relevant to them –it’s something for SMBs — or, if they do, they’re having trouble […]

Google Killing Helpouts Learning Program

Tweet Almost exactly a year ago I wondered aloud how Helpouts was doing and whether it had any traction. My sense was “no” and that the service was languishing. I’ve always thought it was a good idea with great potential for both users and providers. But either Google didn’t push it enough to the consumer public […]

Does Retailer App-Ambivalence Threaten to Slow Beacon Momentum?

Tweet Are beacons threatened by retailer app ambivalence? A new survey (n=70) from Shop.org and Forrester Research, discussed in The State of Online Retailing, says that many large retailers have “quietly opted to put apps on the back burner” — and, perhaps unwittingly, beacons with them. No app, no beacons. At some point, indoor location […]

Google Maps Turns 10 But What Will Mapping Look Like 10 Years from Now?

Tweet I remember when Google Maps was just a baby. Google launched Maps in 2005. It wasn’t the first digital mapping product by any means. But with its then-novel ability to drag the map without reloading, it quickly came to define dynamic mapping and continues to be the dominant mapping property today. (Re/Code has a […]

Click-to-Call Ads: $4 Billion in 2014 — How Much Is Local?

Tweet Today Marchex released a report on click-to-call ads and keyword attribution. As part of the report the company estimated that, based on its understanding of the market, internal SEM data and publicly released Google call volumes, marketers spent roughly $4 billion on mobile search using call extensions on Google and Bing (mostly Google). In […]

Google Now Becomes “Platform,” Incorporates Third Party Content, Apps

Tweet Yesterday Google announced Q4 and full year 2014 results. The company made a boatload of money ($18 billion) but still fell short of Wall Street expectations. That resulted in a short-lived stock drop, which recovered as people realized things “weren’t as bad as feared,” to quote one analyst. Google continues to struggle in mobile […]

Has Y! Just Given Up on Local/Mobile Search?

Tweet Yahoo released Q1 earnings yesterday (so did Apple of course). As as been pointed out, the company’s core business is basically flat. Partly this is a result of more intense display ad competition (Google, Facebook, etc.), more overall display impression “liquidity” (supply) and the pre-Mayerian outsourcing of PC search to Bing. Pressured by institutional […]

LSA Insights: New Tool With Real Local-Media Campaign Data Across Channels

Tweet This morning The LSA formally announced a new media performance, benchmarking and planning tool: LSA Insights. This has been in development and beta testing for the past two years. It’s “mature” enough for launch but it will continue to add data and categories over time. When I joined LSA late last August I was surprised and […]

Report: Zomato Buys Urbanspoon for Roughly $50 Million, Entering US Market

Tweet International restaurant directory Zomato is reportedly entering the US in a splashy way: it has bought Urbanspoon from IAC. Based in India but operating in 130 cities around the world, Zomato raised $60 million from Sequoia Capital late last year and has raised over $100 million to date. The rumored purchase price is that […]

About Greg

Greg Sterling is VP of Strategy & Insights for the LSA. His research is focused on the impact of digital media on offline consumer purchase behavior.

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