Restaurant app Tobiko goes old school by shunning user reviews
The app represents a return to the simplicity of expert reviews....
BrightEdge promises ‘self-driving SEO’ with new Autopilot offering
Key SEO tasks can now be fully automated according to the company....
Google showing mobile ‘search by photos’ option in selected local verticals
The new element appears to not have a fixed position but resides below the local pack, sometimes right below....
Invoca ‘Signal Discovery’ promises automated optimization from predictive call intelligence
Calls are an important source of first-party data, often neglected by...
Nextdoor’s ‘Local Deals’ ads let SMBs target specific neighborhoods
Appearing in multiple places, it's both a paid search and display ad in one....
Revenge of the small business website
VC investments in Wordpress' parent and Duda, plus a new Yahoo website offering, show that SMB sites are still big...
A eulogy for Mapquest
Once the dominant mapping site, the decline of Mapquest is a story of disruptive competition and corporate...
Google rolling out ‘Incognito Mode’ for Maps, activity data deletion via Assistant
These privacy controls promote trust and won't impact targeting and analytics....
WeWork looking to sell or spin out acquisitions, including SEO firm Conductor
A Conductor deal has been in process "for awhile," says...
Google won’t pay French publishers copyright fees, will limit content in search results instead
Publishers will need to give explicit consent to Google to show more of their content, says the company....
Nextdoor in new deals with directories to monetize local search
Nextdoor is trying to ramp up revenue growth as it heads toward a likely IPO....
In a victory for speech, EU’s top court sides with Google in right to be forgotten case
A decision in favor of French regulators might have set a difficult precedent....
TripAdvisor says it blocked or removed nearly 1.5 million fake reviews in 2018
Most of the fake reviews that are submitted (91%) are "biased positive reviews."...
Organic search responsible for 53% of all site traffic, paid 15% [Study]
According to BrightEdge, paid and organic search drive more than 70% of revenues for B2B and the other verticals....
Which local citation sources matter now?
An informal poll of local SEOs yields some answers -- and disagreements -- about spending time on...
Report alleges Amazon manipulating search results to boost its products, profit
The company said to give its own products “preferential treatment in search.”...
BrightLocal launches ‘Local RankFlux’ Google local algorithm tracking tool
The tool is designed to help SEOs and businesses more easily track local algo...
Yelp introduces ‘Connect’ and new Waitlist features for restaurants
Connect is a publishing tool not unlike Google Posts, but with differences....
Search used when brands are unknown, but it’s direct navigation for existing customers
A new survey from Yext explores what content sources are more trusted and what's at stake in not paying enough attention to third party platforms....
Does the 9th Circuit’s decision in HiQ vs. LinkedIn open the floodgates to scraping?
The case may still be reheard or appealed but it appears to be a broad ruling in favor of "the open internet."...