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Local Mobile Search: They’ll Be Watching You

Written on November 3, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

Local mobile search is heating up. The powerful combination of GPS location and user input creates a golden opportunity for accurate, local, useful information to break out in a big way. As more and more GPS-enabled smartphones come on the market, more and more search engines and apps want to know just where you are and just what you’re looking for.

The New York Times looks at another new local mobile app entering the marketplace. Although the GPS integration varies among the present offerings, we already have apps from local opinion sites like Yelp and Citysearch doing well in this area, as well as more specialized search engines and apps. Google and Microsoft already have local business listings as well. Is there room for Loopt’s new local-mobile app, Pulse, launching today?

Absolutely, says Greg Sterling. He points out that there’s no “definitive” local mobile app yet—and it looks like Pulse might be able to position itself as that definitive app. Pulse draws info from 20 services, “including listings and review services like Zagat, Citysearch and Eventful as well as content sites like DailyCandy, Thrillist and The Village Voice.”

Additionally, Pulse looks at social, spatial and temporal data to make recommendations:

Pulse produces a personalized and ever-changing list of recommendations based on where you are, the time of day and Loopt’s own data on where you and your friends have been. It shows editorial descriptions and reviews from the partner sites and averages the ratings a business has received.

Pulse also factors in more subjective factors, like which places are particularly popular with Loopt users at a given moment. That will help Pulse come up with recommendations that a site like Google might not, said Sam Altman, a Loopt co-founder.

In addition to going for a comprehensive algorithmic/social/human-powered service, Loopt is also using a unique payment method: “Loopt gets some revenue from cellphone carriers, which include its service in their data plans or buy its technology to run their own location-based applications.” They will also be connecting with advertisers and local businesses to offer local coupons on cell phones. Finally, they also share revenue with participating content sites—like Citysearch. (A partnership with Yelp may come in the future, if Loopt can promise that the reviews will be clearly marked as coming from Yelp.)

Pulse is currently working on an updated app for the iPhone. The creator, Loopt, is a mobile friend-finding service, so they already have the mobile social networking capabilities needed for the product.

Of course, these advances may also mean that these third parties, search engines and telephone companies can locate you at any time. Not only that, they know what you’ve been looking for—whether that’s “bowling alley” and “ice cream” or “gun store” and “abandoned warehouse.” This conspiracy theory brought to you by The Police.

But since I don’t plan on using my phone to help in my murderous plots (well, at least not in real life), I’m pretty excited about progress in this area. Now if only I could get a better phone.

What do you think? Are you looking forward to new apps in the local mobile search space? Do you think Pulse will have what it takes to succeed—and possibly become that definitive app?

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Local Mobile Search: They’ll Be Watching You

Turkey Suing Google for $47M in Back Taxes

Written on November 3, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, marketing

Dear World:

Google is advertising in your countries.

Duh.

Turkey has recently determined that Google owes them $47M US (71M Turkish lira) in back taxes on advertising sold in Turkey. The government maintains that because Google sells advertising in Turkey and maintains an office and registered subsidiary in the country.

Google, on the other hand, points out that “it runs its ad network operations from Ireland and thus is not obliged to pay taxes in Turkey merely because it owns a subsidiary there.” The suit recognizes that bills and checks (or should I say cheques?) for such advertising are addressed from/to the company’s European headquarters in Dublin.

Says TechCrunch:

In a statement, Google said it is acting in accordance with the tax laws of every country in which it operates, including Turkish laws, and that its negotiations with the government on this issue are ongoing. . . .

We’ve also been in touch with a Turkish lawyer, who tells us the government is making a valid claim, pointing out that Google has set up a full-fledged company called Google Reklamcılık ve Pazarlama Ltd. Şti. (which means Google Advertising and Marketing Ltd.) in Turkey rather than what he refers to as a ‘liaison’ branch. Had it done the latter, says the lawyer, the company would have had to pay very little or no taxes at all.

Personally, I’m a little skeptical of the Turkish government’s claim, mostly because if Google has really been taxable all this time (and since Google is the #1 online and search ad company in Turkey), they (the government or Google) would have figured this out a lot sooner. Did the Turkish government just figure out they could tax Google? Or is this, as TechCrunch points out, just a bargaining tactic tor force Google’s negotiations to go faster?

(Note: the Turkish government says they’ve determined this after a year of investigating. Again, a year? It doesn’t take a year to figure out that someone should be paying you taxes, especially not if a Turkish lawyer can figure it out in one email. If they really wanted the taxes, they could have indicated that Google should be paying taxes at the beginning of the investigation instead of stalling a year while Google racked up more income that they could penalize. I think being dishonest like that should be reason enough to lose the suit.)

Here’s what I think: if you really want to tax Google, countries of the world, then do it—but pass a new law that they can’t get out of. Don’t try to cobble together a legal argument, backform your present laws that may or may not fit the situation, or stall an entire year to try to squeeze more out of them. Because, after all, taxing Internet companies for selling stuff in your jurisdiction has worked really well in New York, North Carolina, etc.

What do you think? Will Turkey get their cash, will the case get thrown out, or are they really just hoping for Google to settle for any amount? Will this make Google reluctant to operate in that country in the future?

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Turkey Suing Google for $47M in Back Taxes

Twitter, Lists and Widgets

Written on November 3, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

The title says it all. Twitter has offered its list function and now there are widgets to go with it. Widgets and you; perfect together. This is a good thing for folks looking to add more and more to their blogs. Considering how many blogs look these days it may require ditching something else that makes your blog cool because there is only so much room for stuff and things on your blog unless of course you are concentrating on that silly content idea. Here’s the gist of it though as described by TechCrunch.

The List Widget is exactly what you’d expect: A widget that you can place on your blog that displays a list of your choosing. One nice thing is that this can be a list you made or one any user has made (that is public). If you simply type in a user’s name, it will show their lists in a drop down menu. You then give the list a title, a caption, customize its look and feel, and you’re good to go.

I can see this being pretty cool especially on a local level. While many will concentrate on using someone else’s lists who are famous because they want to be cool it would actually be a neat function to try to create a real community feel on the local level for the little guy. Anytime you can customize and pare down the size of the Internet (and Twitter in particular) to a more manageable, and Lord forbid, usable version there is at least some cause for celebration. It certainly looks easy enough to put together.

So who would you have on your list?

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Twitter, Lists and Widgets