Why is there so little innovation in local?
The alpha and omega of local is now Google.
Topic: Yelp
In-App Search: Great Idea, Not So Great Experience
Google, Facebook and others are trying to bring the world of internet-style “deep linking” to apps. Google is indexing in-app links from Android in a bid to keep search relevant in a mobile world now dominated by apps. Facebook recently touted gains that its open-source App Link program has made. Now an independent search app […]
New Foursquare App Bets The Company On Personalization
After months of anticipation, the new Foursquare app has finally arrived. It will be available this morning from the three major app stores. The new app is built around two principal concepts: Tips and Tastes. It attempts to create a better “local search” experience using data (in the background) and personalization. Taking aim at Yelp […]
Google Bringing App Indexing To All Android Apps
Among the numerous announcements at the Google I/O developer conference this morning, Google said it was expanding its app indexing program to all Android apps and developers. App indexing allows for deep linking of app content from mobile web search results. Previously, Google had only been indexing selected apps, although the program has been steadily […]
Will Mobile Apps Be Google’s Undoing? (Hint: No)
The New York Times offers an interesting story about Google and the competitive landscape of mobile. The headline is “As Web Search Goes Mobile, Competitors Chip at Google’s Lead.” The central idea of the article is that while Google is used on the PC equally to discover information and to navigate to specific sites, on smartphones […]
Critics Rave About iPhone 5 But Many Roast Apple’s Maps
While the iPhone 5 itself is getting very positive reviews — essentially raves — Apple Maps have received a mixed response. It has emerged as the potential Achilles Heel of the new handset (other than the generally reviled “lightening” dock connector). Waze CEO Noam Bardin was quoted last night by Business Insider saying that the […]
Hello Chomp, Goodbye Android Market
Given the massive number of apps now on both the iPhone and Android some people (especially tech bloggers) complain regularly about the “problem of app discovery.” In fact we don’t know if regular users are similarly vexed. But let’s assume they are. On Android in particular “app discovery” has been less than optimal. Now iPhone […]
Mobile Apps: Search By Another Name
Responding to Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ declaration that on mobile devices “search hasn’t happened,” we’ve now written several times about how mobile apps of various sorts are essentially search by another name. Just to refresh your memory, here’s Jobs making that statement in April of this year: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuQWPGTBVE4&feature=player_embedded[/youtube] The specific app he references (in case […]
Chomp: An Apps Search Engine Or “Yelp For The App Store”
Chomp could be described as a search engine for iPhone apps (and eventually other apps stores). It’s a two-month old iPhone app and more recently a website, which resembles Twitter, whose objective is to enable people to more easily discover and review iPhone apps. The proliferation of 160,000 iPhone apps has created the well-documented problem […]
Google’s Near Me Now: A Yelp Killer?
Just a couple weeks after failing to consummate a rumored deal to buy Yelp, Google has launched a mobile search tool that could take away the mobile market share of Yelp and similar sites/apps like Urbanspoon, MapQuest, and some of the yellow pages apps. It’s called “Near Me Now,” and Google previewed it last month […]