This morning Amazon announced a new program called “Alexa for Hospitality” as well as a partnership with Marriott to install Echo devices in hotel rooms to act as a kind of “virtual concierge.” The initial rollout will be at “select” Marriott properties (e.g., Courtyard and others in that category) later this summer. Marriott is the largest hotel chain in…
The coming merger between IAC’s HomeAdvisor and Angie’s List may signal a new round of consolidation in the local space. Yelp’s purchases of Nowait and Turnstyle are other recent acquisitions, as sites seek to build services and bulk up to fight Google and Facebook. The IAC-Angie’s List deal also mirrors other trends (verticalization and operational…
Recently YP released data that during and following the recent huge and sustained power outage in Michigan it saw a massive spike in internet and print lookups, measured by call tracking. The company said that “contractors in Southeast Michigan with print and digital marketing solutions experienced a 369% increase in leads on the day of…
SEO firm BrightLocal is out with its now annual Local Consumer Review Survey 2016. The survey had just over 1,000 respondents. It reveals a paradoxical pattern: consumers appear to have a specific yet mostly superficial approach to online review consumption. Here are some of the general findings: The vast majority of consumers (91%) rely on…
YP recently announced two high profile content integrations. First it said it will be adding “more than 450,000 active [Groupon] deals in North America within the YP search experience.” Later the company announced the inclusion of Trip Advisor reviews: Search results for nearly 850,000 of the hotel, restaurant and local attraction listings available on the…
Late last week Advice Local launched a new listing management product called Local Verticals. The product looks to help doctors, lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, home service providers and others show up on niche, category specific sites, and improve the search engine ranking of these businesses as well. Advice Local’s niche citation services were originally just…
Interactive Corp. (IAC) sought unsuccessfully to engage Angie’s List’s management in takeover talks. Now the company, which owns rival Home Advisor, announced a direct bid to shareholders of $8.75 per share — essentially a hostile takeover attempt worth more than $500 million. IAC wants to combine Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor into a single entity. Home…
Founded in 2007 by Mark Britton, Avvo set out to make legal easier by offering consumers clear and complete information about legal issues and lawyers in their area qualified to help. Avvo currently has Avvo-rated profiles for 97% of attorneys in the U.S., a Q&A forum where consumers can ask a question for free and…
I had been hearing rumors for some time that Demandforce was going to be sold. Small business financial software provider Intuit purchased the company for roughly $424 million in 2012. Now it’s being sold along with a couple of other Intuit products (thanks @localseoguide @rajnijjer). Demandforce started as a CRM-lite tool for dentists that promised…
Based on over 8,000 consumer respondents, LSA recently released an infographic highlighting the top 142 business categories that consumers searched for in the past week. The graphic above rolls up that more specific data into broader categories, offering some interesting insights. Lifestyle is by far the most sought after vertical with 46% of respondents saying…
