Category Archives: local search

How small businesses should use Yelp

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Rakesh Agrawal

Although I’ve strongly criticized Yelp‘s business model in recent weeks, Yelp is an incredibly important platform for small businesses to be aware of and engage with. And unlike Groupon, which has almost no redeeming value, Yelp has created a valuable consumer … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, local search, yellow pages, yelp | 4 Comments

Scanning bar codes seems to be a popular holiday pastime

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Rakesh Agrawal

IDC’s 2011 shopper survey shows shockingly high usage of smart phone scanning tools to scan bar codes and QR codes. Nearly 1/3 of those surveyed said they had scanned a bar code. A common use of this technology is to … Continue reading →

Posted in local search, mobile, mobile search | 1 Comment

Virgin America knows how to make daily deals work

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Rakesh Agrawal

I admit it. I am in the bag for Virgin America. I have been since before they took off. (Literally.) I once live tweeted a flight to San Diego using their in-flight WiFi. Savvy travelers will recognize that the picture … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, airlines, groupon, local search | 4 Comments

Heading toward the Facebook recommendation engine

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Rakesh Agrawal

There’s an interesting thread over at Mike Blumenthal’s blog on the effect of Facebook Places on the local reviews space. My view is that reviews and updates will coexist, much as blogs and Twitter coexist. People who were less committed … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, lbs, local search, maps, yellow pages, yelp | Tagged | 15 Comments

Groupon personalizes the daily deal

Posted on July 30, 2010 by Rakesh Agrawal

Groupon announced a shift from its approach of the same deal for all email subscribers in a market to personalized deals in select cities. CEO Andrew Mason says that there is a backlog of 35,000 businesses waiting to be featured … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, local search, marketing | 1 Comment

Why small businesses are snapping up the daily deal

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Rakesh Agrawal

In recent months, we’ve seen daily deal sites like Groupon and Living Social grow like crazy. Groupon is valued at $1.35 billion. That’s more than 4x the valuation of the McClatchy Company, one of the country’s largest newspaper publishers. It … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, google, local search, marketing, yelp | 3 Comments

Checking in with foursquare at SFO

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Rakesh Agrawal

With the increasing use of mobile applications such as Yelp and foursquare, it’s becoming possible to pull ideas from thin air. Users of these apps can leave tips for others to find that are linked to a specific location. In … Continue reading →

Posted in audio, foursquare, geotagging, lbs, local search, maps, mobile, social networking, twitter | Tagged | 1 Comment

Now we’re going Places

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’ve been writing about Twitter and location since my first post about Twitter in 2007. This week, Twitter launched Places, which allows users to add their location to a tweet. Here’s a screenshot from 2007: and today: In 2007, I … Continue reading →

Posted in geotagging, gps, lbs, local search, maps, mobile, social networking, twitter | Tagged | 1 Comment

iPad puts on its business suit

Posted on June 14, 2010 by Rakesh Agrawal

Most of the discussion around Apple’s iPad has been about what a great consumer device it is. It’s a book reader, movie player, newspaper, photo viewer, RSS reader and more. But the iPad has a lot to offer businesses as … Continue reading →

Posted in apple, foursquare, ipad, iphone, local search, mobile, social networking | 2 Comments

Geo-enabled Twitter comes alive on Twitter Maps

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’ve been playing with Bing’s Twitter Maps lately and it’s one of the better implementations of Twitter’s geo APIs that were introduced last fall. It shows tweets within the last 7 days plotted on the map. Google Maps recently introduced a … Continue reading →

Posted in bing, geotagging, lbs, local search, maps, mobile, social networking, twitter | 3 Comments