1. http://www.searchperspective.com/2010/07/27/the-fwix-is-in-local-news-aggregator-fwix-
launches-hyperlocal-search-engine/
27Jul
Joanna J. Cheney
 SEM
 Social Media
The Fwix Is In! Local News Aggregator,
Fwix, Launches Hyperlocal Search Engine
Last week Fwix launched the beta version of their hyperlocal search engine, which it is calling a
Local Trend Search Tool, and the blogs are abuzz.
If you haven’t heard of it, Fwix is a local news aggregator that allows users to streamline their
news feeds (which include blogs and social media) based on their locations and interests into
their own customized homepages. Fwix was founded in October 2008 by Darian Shirazi, and its
initial purpose was to streamline news and information on the internet based on a user’s location.
I hadn’t heard of this site before and decided to take it for a spin. Upon registering as a user,
Fwix suggests topics of interest for you based on your city. Since I’m in Milwaukee, WI, it
suggested the Brewers, Lake Michigan, and, of course, beer.
What’s a hyperlocal search engine, you ask? Matt McGee from Search Engine Land explains,
“Where real-time search answers ‘What’s happening right now?’, hyperlocal search answers the
question, ‘What’s happening right here?’ It’s like local search on steroids, you could say.”
To demonstrate one of the advantages of hyperlocal search, I give you the following example:
Last Thursday, a couple hours before the Brew City Flood hit my area, I did a general Google
search for “Jazz in the Park, Milwaukee” in an effort to find information on whether it had been
canceled due to rain and got a slew of results. However, none pertained to the status of the event
that evening.
Then, I ran a search from my Fwix homepage using just “Jazz in the Park”. Since Fwix already
knew my location, there was no need to enter any location keywords. The first two results were
articles from local news sites that let me know the weekly event had, in fact, been canceled due
to inclement weather.
Now, that’s what I call results!

2. http://www.searchperspective.com/2010/09/03/foursquare-is-still-the-mayor-of-location-based-
services-for-now/
03Sep
Joanna J. Cheney
 Local
 Mobile
 facebook
Foursquare Is Still The Mayor of Location-
Based Services…For Now
The LA Times posed the question, “Is Facebook Places a foursquare killer?” the day of the
Facebook Places launch. At first glance, one would be remiss to disagree, as Facebook’s social
prowess makes foursquare’s location-based service look puny in comparison.
However, just four days after Facebook launched Facebook Places, foursquare marked its biggest
growth spurt ever. Fourquare increased from 2.6 million users before Facebook’s mobile social
validating launch on August 19th to 3 million users as of August 29th. According to
Mashable.com, foursquare will continue to grow at a rate of 15,000 users a day.
The votes are in, and it seems foursquare is still the mayor of location-based mobile social
networks. Why? Well, there are many takes on the issue out there.
Gavin Dunaway at Adotas surmises, “People knew about foursquare and its location-based ilk,
but Facebook Places legitimized it, made it safe for the masses.” So which service is preferred by
the masses? Mashable’s Web Faceoff Poll from the week after Facebook Places’ launch elected
foursquare as the preferred location-based service with 57.1% of the votes; on top of that, 7.7%
of voters said they use/like both.
Even foursquare’s CEO, Dennis Crowley, has a very vocal opinion about Places’ appeal. “I have
now had a chance to play around with Facebook Places, and it’s not that great or interesting. It’s
a pretty boring service, with barely any incentives for users to keep coming back and telling their
friends where they are,” he said during a recent interview with The Telegraph.
I personally have yet to use Facebook Places, since I have an android phone, and it has not been
added to my Facebook app. But I have a feeling I won’t be adopting it as my main location-
based service. I already have Twitter, Facebook, and foursquare linked up the way I like it, and
foursquare fulfills my current “check-in” needs with a fun, game-like feel. It would take a lot for
me to make a change.

3. http://www.searchperspective.com/2010/10/04/will-the-social-network-change-facebooks-status/
04Oct
Joanna J. Cheney
 POV
 Social Networking
 facebook
Will “The Social Network” Change
Facebook’s Status?
Since early this year, you’ve been hearing about “The Social Network,” aka the Facebook movie.
Like me, you may have even seen the final product upon its nationwide release this past
weekend, along with an estimated $23 million worth of movie-goers.
The commercials for the film say it all with the tag line “You don’t get to 500 million friends
without making a few enemies,” implying there may be a substantial reason to not “Like”
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. Let’s just say I now know why he made a $100 million
dollar donation to the Newark, NJ public school system the week before the film’s release.
According to the film, Zuckerberg may have been the one to write the code and create the
website, but without his business-major best friend/business partner, it would have never have
become monetized or the marketing opportunity it is today. And as Tom Siebert at Online Media
Daily observes, Zuckerberg initially saw Facebook solely “as a tool for his own glorification.”
Of which, I am in total agreement – to the extent that the movie initially made me think twice
about my own use of Facebook.
And I’m not the only one. Gavin Dunaway from Adotas fears for the future of Facebook because
of Zuckerberg’s depiction in the film and questions “Will [Facebook users] run straight home
from the multiplex and delete their Facebook accounts? Or possibly can they write on their
iPhones as they exit the theater?”
Not likely. If this sampling of movie-goers interviewed by Bloomberg.com are among the
majority, most will brush off the portrayal as Hollywood taking license to make the story
interesting.
In my opinion, this film will not decrease the use of Facebook. Even though the movie portrays
Zuckerberg as a complete jerk (to put it nicely), he’s relatable. And if you stay tuned in until the
last scene, you will see why.

4. http://www.searchperspective.com/2011/02/10/comscores-2010-digital-year-in-review-how-to-
be-effective-in-2011/
10Feb
Joanna J. Cheney
 15miles
 Personalization
 White Paper
comScore’s 2010 Digital Year In Review:
How To Be Effective in 2011
On February 8th, comScore released “The 2010 U.S. Digital Year in Review,” which provides an
in depth view of the U.S. Digital Media landscape and uses their findings to provide insight into
how effective marketers can succeed in 2011.
With the innovation and uplifting results of 2010, comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni expects
good things to come in 2011, but cautions “marketers must have a sound understanding of the
digital media landscape and how it is changing if they hope to capitalize on key trends that can
drive their business into the future.”
ComScore’s report lists out the forecast for each media individually, but I couldn’t help noticing
how many digital aspects are influenced by each other or other marketing channels:
 Local-group buying sites such as Groupon.com and Livingsocial.com drove offline
purchases.
 Social was host to 1/3rd of all display advertising in 2010 and will continue to grow given
it’s ability to reach millions cost effectively.
 Social search terms dominated search queries in 2010, reinforcing the importance of
being visible on social networks.
 Mobile, with its convenient real time pricing ability, could help drive consumer’s buying
activity online.
The examples above reiterate the importance of tailoring marketing campaigns to fit your
business, with as much or as little integration as necessary. ComScore says effective marketers
“must realize that it is not wise to chase every shiny object emerging on the digital landscape, as
not every innovation is the right fit for a given company or brand.” While seemingly obvious
advice, you’d be surprised how many one size fits all options there are out there. Understanding
your business and industry is key to developing the ideal media mix.

5. http://www.searchperspective.com/2011/03/24/foursquare-unveils-explore-recommendation-
feature/
24Mar
Joanna J. Cheney
 Mobile
 Ratings & Reviews
 foursquare
Foursquare Unveils “Explore”
Recommendation Feature
As we’ve been talking about on our blog for the past week, check-in apps are all the rage right
now. Foursquare seems to be the front runner and that may be because of their ever-innovating
business sense.
Last week, in conjunction with the the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive show,
Foursquare unveiled the 3.0 version of its app, containing a new recommendation feature called
“Explore.” Recommendations are based on you and your friends’ Foursquare activity history and
that’s the best part about it, in my opinion. There are no ratings to deal with unlike Google
Hotpot or Yelp; “Explore” is based purely on your check-in activity.
As Foursquare’s CEO Dennis Crowley explains, “The suggestions are based on a little bit of
everything – the places you’ve been, the places your friends have visited, your loyalty to your
favorite places, the categories and types of places you gravitate towards, what’s popular with
other users, the day of the week, places with great tips, the time of day, and so on. We’ll even tell
you why we think you should visit a certain place (e.g. popular with friends, similar to your
favorite spots).”
What does this mean for Foursquare as a marketing tool? BusinessInsider.com theorizes, “If
Explore works, we’re sure plenty of restaurants and bars would pay to be at the top just like they
might pay to be at the top of a Google search, which essentially fulfills the same function.”
Sometime in the future this may come to fruition, but only after it has been adopted more
extensively; for now, I see it as Foursquare’s attempt to more directly compete with Google’s
host of location-based search tools.
I plan on checking out Foursquare 3.0 soon, but in the meantime I was checking the reviews on
the Android market and there seems to be some glitches that Foursquare needs to address and
quick. For example, a reoccurring complaint is not being awarded points and the app describing
the users as being “a little too far away” whilst standing inside the building.
Have you tried Foursquare 3.0? What has been your experience?