A location-based app could rescue newspapers that have seen ad revenue shrivel this past decade. USA WEEKEND, the magazine that takes over when national newspaper USA Today breaks from its weekday schedule, has started a mobile shopper marketing program. Using Pelago’s Whrrl location and game app, the publication will build custom societies for marketers. Readers …
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Major companies are committed to making Facebook Deals–the social network’s answer to Foursquare–a success. Gap alone is offering 10,000 free pairs of jeans to consumers who use Deals, an extension of Facebook’s Places mobile feature, to check into 900 of the chain’s nationwide stores. Notes AdAge, Deals combines location-based check-in services, such as Foursquare, with local …
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The tune “Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood” may have been a rudimentary LBS app. The kids’ show Sesame Street recently debuted the fictional iPogo–in song, of course, which has the title “There’s An App For That.” The ditty, about a pogo stick that can do so much more, is clearly meant to teach …
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A yellow pages-like directory of local businesses. A way to find out which of those businesses have sought-out products in stock. Respectively, Yellowbook and Milo.com aim to offer a hyper-local and hyper-convenience shopping experience. Yellowbook’s local search capability–now powered by Milo.com–lets shoppers quickly locate where a product is currently available for purchase, and also compare …
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The health insurance company CIGNA is making it much less daunting for its customers to find in-network specialists and figure the best place to buy their medications. CIGNA Mobile makes it much easier to find, say, a dermatologist or oncologist after a routine general checkup uncovers an odd-looking mole. Accessible by any Internet-capable phone, the …
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The movie studio Lionsgate is implementing a variety of mobile marketing techniques to promote its new movie For Colored Girls–showing an understanding of how to best reach consumers on their phones. Using Augme Technologies’ interactive media marketing platform, the marketing strategy utilizes both QR barcodes and a text-messaging campaign. The barcodes will be printed on …
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Mobile health care both intrigues and frightens. The technology can streamline care and make it easier, for example by allowing remote access to health records and instant communications between patients and care-givers. But it also scares privacy advocates who worry that sensitive information might be displayed for all to see, possibly even be used for …
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If nothing can convince businesses they’re dumb not to optimize Internet content for cell phones, consider the jaw-dropping 2000 percent growth in mobile-ready websites, as reported today by web mobilization tool providers dotMobi. Yes, that’s a two and three zeroes. Clearly, anyone who doesn’t try to reach customers with mobile content really are hand-delivering them …
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Back in 2006 I spied something behind my apartment in San Francisco: A fantasy-style commercial being filmed to promote Hewlett-Packard’s iPaq phones–behemoths that were more PC than pocket–to young consumers. The gist was that a group of teenage boys were using a GPS game to find a beautiful teen princess. To my knowledge the commercial …
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I got to thinking recently about a case in Shanghai back in 2005. The friendship between two Internet gaming enthusiasts went horribly south after one “stole” the other’s virtual sword. Qiu Chengwei went to Zhu Caoyuan’s house after the latter sold the virtual weapon for 7200 yuan (about $1083)–and fatally stabbed him in the chest. …
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