Author Archive

GEO's Big Moment: Behind the Adobe $1.9B Semrush Acquisition

GEO’s Big Moment: Behind Adobe’s $1.9B Semrush Acquisition

Adobe announced yesterday that it will acquire digital marketing and SEO giant Semrush for $1.9 billion. Among other things, this signals the importance of generative engine optimization (GEO), as Adobe looks to integrate content optimization into the creative outputs of its flagship Creative Cloud. 

Sendbird Democratizes Agentic AI

AI-powered enterprise communications company Sendbird this week launched a white-labeled personal concierge. Known as Delight.ai, it gives brands and app developers a way to integrate VIP-level concierge functions into their customer-facing apps, thus boosting their quality and stickiness.

The Maps War Enters the AI Era

The Mapping Wars Enter the AI Era

Gemini’s integrations in Google Maps have ratcheted up with a more conversational interface that can be best described as an in-route concierge. While driving, users can do things like ask Gemini about places of interest along their route, or any other specific urges.

Lessons in Evolving & Adapting: Yext Sunsets Knowledge Assistant Tool

Lessons in Evolving & Adapting: Yext Sunsets Knowledge Assistant Tool

We recently discovered that Yext has deprecated its Knowledge Assistant tool. These types of moves generally don’t get the fanfare and press attention that new product launches get, but can often represent strategic maneuvers that are worth shining a light on. What can we learn from this move?

Bluehost Gets a Boost From Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Bluehost Gets a Boost From Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Web hosting powerhouse Bluehost has announced that it has upleveled its platform by integrating Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Among other things, this will make the millions of WordPress websites hosted on its servers – many of which are SMB websites – faster and more performant. 

Google Pompelli Automates SMB Social Ads

Google Pomelli Automates SMB Social Ads

The latest product in the prolific Google Labs does just this. Known as Pompelli, the joint effort from Google Labs and DeepMind automatically assembles ad campaign creative assets like banner ads. Like several multi-step agentic AI tools that are developing, it turns detailed prompts into action and output.

Thryv Tailors AI and Automation to Home Services

Thryv Tailors AI and Automation to Home Services

MB-Saas powerhouse Thryv has launched a growth marketing engine for Home Services businesses to scale. To achieve this, it inherits Thryv’s latest AI and automation capabilities and packages them up in a set of marketing tools purpose-built for the specific challenges of the home services vertical. 

Are Accounting & Tax Pros AI's Next Conquest?

Are Accounting & Tax Pros AI’s Next Conquest?

A new report from LexisNexis quantifies the pace of AI adoption among tax pros. For example, 64 percent of tax pros use AI in their day-to-day operations, up from 40 percent in February. 

What's the Playbook for Franchise Marketing in the AI Era?

What’s the Playbook for Franchise Marketing in the AI Era?

Entitled, 2026 Local Advertising Planning Guide for Franchise Brands, Tiger Pistol’s latest report details local marketing tactics that can help franchise marketers get the job done. This also represents Tiger Pistol’s return to its prolific local marketing playbook series.

Are Local Ads Coming to Apple Maps?

Are Local Ads Coming to Apple Maps?

Is Apple looking for more ways to generate ad revenue? And could it involve local ads? New details uncovered by prolific Apple Sleuth Mark Gurman suggest yes to both questions. Of course, with all things Apple, we’re left with speculation as the company is tight-lipped about anything in development. 

Tiger Pistol Strips the Friction Out of Franchise Marketing

Tiger Pistol Strips the Friction Out of Franchise Marketing

Local advertising platform Tiger Pistol today announced a new AI-based tool to take the friction out of creating and running local marketing campaigns. Known as the Creative Automation Studio, it streamlines these workflows using things like generative AI and automated campaign optimization. 

Scorpion Closes the SMB Inbound Call Gap

Scorpion Closes the SMB Inbound-Call Gap

Scorpion has launched a new product to combat the missed call problem. Known as Convert, it’s an AI-powered agent that’s a first line of defense for inbound leads.

The AI Browser Wars Heat Up with Atlas

OpenAI has finally launched a web browser. Known as Atlas, it seeks to embolden OpenAI as the front door to your connected experiences – positioning already seeded by ChatGPT’s escalating usage. This move aligns with the logic behind AI engines having their own browser and takes the fight to Google.

Yelp Fall Product Release Plants AI Where it Matters

Yelp’s Fall Product Release Plants AI Where it Matters

Yelp is out with its annual Fall Product Release, and it’s a doozy. The wide-ranging feature blitz is heavy on AI (as expected), including Menu Vision, Yelp Host, Yelp Receptionist, natural language search and updates to Yelp Assistant. This follows the cadence of Yelp’s big bi-annual feature releases. 

Cost Sensitive & Churn-Happy: vcita Profiling Today's SMB

Cost Sensitive & Churn-Happy: Profiling Today’s SMB

SMB marketing leader vcita has released a study that profiles today’s SMB and what makes it tick. The short version is that churn rates are indeed higher than ever, so the name of the game for media companies is to make themselves sticky.

3 Trends Defining Today’s Digital Media Landscape

Street Fight Live took place a few weeks ago in Los Angeles, and we’ve examined various sessions & talks here on Localogy Insider. To cap off that coverage, what were the show’s overarching themes, threads, and takeaways? There were many, but we’ve picked three that stood out most to us.

The Agentic Shopping Land Grab Has Begun

The Agentic Shopping Land Grab Has Begun

ChatGPTs new shopping functionality lets users research and buy products without leaving the app. Now the program is emboldened with the addition of Walmart. We examine strategic implications.