Senior Analyst
Trover is a new mobile local discovery app built around geotagged images. Trover’s CEO discusses possible futures for crowdsourced location-based search directories and the potential these new platforms to deliver more relevant, personalized ads.
Mobile local monetization, mobile deals, the future of check-ins, mobile payments, mobile social sharing, voice search, and more! Here is some forward looking speculation on what we can expect in the exploding mobile and local market in 2012.
Google and optimized mobile websites win by way of more traffic and searches. The latter slowly happens with the reinforcement of the quality of the mobile web. As more mobile sites are built, guess who will want to index and make sense of it all.
While search is good at commercial intent, I'm not convinced that social media and commerce have chocolate and peanut butter love. But if there is a killer app, it will be found by the developers to which eBay is handing the keys to the kingdom.
Is the deals space imploding? Evidence of an impending fatality has been over exaggerated and in some cases misreported. The daily deals space will look a lot different in two years, but it won't be dead. Here's what's really going to happen.
A perfect storm is brewing for mobile advertising in search, display, and SMS; and across mobile web and native apps. But what does it all mean for mobile local advertising and search? Here are some QR code marketing dos and don'ts.
Since the Google Wallet/Offers combo punch, we’ve seen a few other examples of mobile, deals and payments coming together to close the local loop. It’s the Holy Grail of local (and search), and it’s only just beginning to take form.
The local portion of the total mobile ad market is forecast to grow from $404 million to $2.8 billion, increasing its share from 51 percent to 70 percent by 2015. This is why local will command such a large share of overall mobile ad spending.
If you’ve been awake for any of the past 48 hours, you probably heard about Google’s new Offers product. And you’ve likely read at least one headline that included the words “Groupon Killer”. Most of this coverage has…
The remaining challenge for Foursquare is the SMB segment, where advertisers aren't as easy to reach. The proposition is for SMBs to utilize Foursquare's dashboard to manage specials and drive foot traffic.
Foursquare's evolution, directions, monetization, and the collision of mobile and daily deals: a conversation with Foursquare GM Evan Cohen.
The mobile discovery trend is taking on new forms with growing smartphone penetration, and a Groupon-fueled hunger for the deals infused with apps carrying the social, local, mobile (SoLoMo) banner.
Both Google and Apple are working toward integrating NFC to allow users to pay via a mobile device. Expect to see a land grab over the next year to develop and own the standards.
With increasing search volume, combined with higher CTRs and CPCs than desktop search, it becomes a matter of arithmetic to plot a fairly healthy roadmap for mobile search ad revenue.
Combined with general mobile device evolution and penetration, the pieces are falling into place for an all-out mobile barcode revolution in the coming months.
Google reaches out to a skeptical reseller community that helps sell search marketing to the massive but elusive small business segment, trying to repair the damage done by shutting down the Authorized Reseller Program.
Facebook Places will bring location check-ins to the mainstream, but will it be met with open arms or a collective "meh"?
Check-ins may be the new currency of mobile local search, but sites like Foursquare will need tools to prevent users from gaming the system using what could become the offline version of click fraud: "check-in fraud."
In addition to consumer appeal and massive scale, the winner in the local geo-social mobile game will have direct touch points with SMBs or be able to build or partner to get them.
Startups with a business model based on local check-ins and promotional campaigns run by SMBs are in need of a reality check. Winners in this space will offer real value that goes beyond virtual incentives.
