LocalU acquired by Sterling Sky founder and SEL contributor Joy Hawkins
Hawkins says the Local Search Forum & the LocalU forum will merge....
TripAdvisor buys SinglePlatform to enhance services for restaurants
The acquisition is part of a strategic shift to deepen restaurant relationships and diversify revenues to better compete with Google....
Google co-founders step down, Sundar Pichai to lead both Google and Alphabet
Page and Brin will remain as board members....
Genius sues Google and LyricFind for more than $50 million in damages
The company alleges breach of contract, unfair competition and lost ad revenue....
More EU antitrust heat for Google (and Facebook) over data collection
In a separate matter, 41 shopping comparison sites want the European Commission to further penalize Google in shopping search....
Google Maps the dominant local search tool, followed by Facebook and Yelp
The average user is on a smartphone at home – and is most likely to visit a business the next day after a local search....
Nearly 60% prefer PC to smartphones for local search survey finds, but there’s a catch
There are material differences between user behaviors of different generations....
Google’s ‘Duplex on the web’ enables the Assistant to buy movie tickets for you
The move is part of a much larger strategy to host the transaction. ...
Google brings audio news aggregation to smart speakers, phones
The Google Assistant acts as a kind of algorithmic, news...
Google Maps becomes more ‘social’ with Local Guides follow feature
Local Guides are part of the reason GMB and Maps are so successful....
WSJ report about Google search manipulation gets a lot wrong
The media narrative has turned against big tech, and this is an example....
Local business study finds 0% of site traffic coming from email, paid media
Are small businesses not using email or digital advertising? The 'Google Analytics for Local Businesses Study' looked at 11K local...
Reviews platform GatherUp acquired by martech holding company ASG
Company run by local search veterans Mike Blumenthal and Aaron Weiche joins a larger portfolio of software companies. ...
CallJoy, Google’s virtual phone agent for SMBs, gets an upgrade
The service is Google's first real foray into SaaS for SMBs....
European antitrust chief says Google’s auction-based shopping remedy not working
Margrethe Vestager may require Google to make additional changes in the...
Uber Eats readies ad sales for restaurants
Could it become a rival to Google and Yelp over time?...
Senate bill seeks to compel tech giants to offer ‘unfiltered’ versions of their content
The 'Filter Bubble Transparency Act' would apply to websites and mobile apps....
Google ramps up investment in wearable technology, enters deal to buy Fitbit for $2.1 billion
Fitbit-successor wearables will be Assistant-centric devices, supported by...
Study: Killing ‘review gating’ doesn’t hurt scores and grows overall volume
GatherUp's examination of internal data shows benefits of inclusive...
Voice assistant study: Microsoft’s Cortana offers most answers, Google Assistant proves most accurate
Perficient Digital ran 5,000 queries on seven devices including Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant (Home, smartphones) and Siri....