Articles by

Yelp Bolsters Position as Leader in the Local Marketplace While Google Struggles

Yelp’s journey to being the leader in local content has been uneventful, unlike the dramas surrounding the likes of Groupon, Google and LivingSocial. But as the leaders in the deals space try to expand their business models, and as Foursquare tries to boost its revenue, Yelp seems to have little competition in the local arena.…

Groupon Shares Plummet on Sandy-Related Concerns

Groupon’s shares fell more than 8 percent on Wednesday on concern Hurricane Sandy will hit demand for the company’s deals. GRPN has since fallen even further, hitting an all-time low of $3.86 Friday morning. Small businesses in areas like New York City and New Jersey are struggling to reopen their doors and are unlikely to…

Facebook Offering Free Wi-Fi to Local-Business Customers in Exchange for Check-ins

Facebook is testing a new service that allows local-business owners to offer free Wi-Fi to their customers in exchange for a check-in. Credit this find to developer Tom Waddington, who noticed a new code entry called “social_wifi” to its Page Insights tool. This led to Facebook confirming a service that offers free Wi-Fi to a…

Infographic: Get Your Emails Shared

Litmus, an email testing and email marketing firm, has created this helpful infographic offering some insights into how to encourage email subscribers to forward campaign messages to others. While tracking forwarding and sharing behavior is pretty straightforward, Litmus takes a closer look at what it takes to encourage sharing. Here are some of the tidbits…

Apple and Google: Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Apple’s iMessage service and Game Center have had issues lately, denting its credibility as a service provider. This is emphasized when you look at Apple Maps, Siri and iCloud syncing, each of which has its own share of problems. The areas where Apple falters are exactly where Google excels. The truth is that Apple and…

Pirq Secures $1.2 Million in Funding and Releases Version 2.0 of Its Mobile App

Pirq, an instant-deals and local-commerce company, announced that it closed a $1.2 million round in venture financing, bringing its total funding to date to $3.2 million. The company also introduced version 2.0 of its mobile real-time deals app, which includes four new verticals in which users can use their digital punch cards. Up until now,…

Fab Introduces Holiday Shops to Help Users Find Gifts, Boost End-of-Year Sales

Fab, which now has up to 9 million users, is introducing Holiday Shops to help users find gifts for the holidays. The Holiday Shops are organized into 12 categories covering gifts for best friends, parents, design or pet lovers, him or her, or gifts for specific amounts. These shops were introduced last year but were…

Infographic: ‘American (Deal) Horror Story’

Constant Contact, a multiplatform marketing company, put together a timely infographic offering an overview of what can go wrong for merchants when running a deal. The horror story is separated into: Deal Provider From the Black Provider The Chicago, Boston, New York, Etc., Deals Massacre A Nightmare on Brick and Mortar Street Fright Night (and…

Waze 3.5 Gets More Social, Enables Users to Meet and Pick up Friends

Waze, the social driving app that got a boost in attention after Apple Maps stumbled out of the gates, has introduced Waze 3.5, which boasts more social features. The maps app now allows its users to see friends that are driving to their destination, and share drives, pickups and meet-up spots. Waze users can also…