Ads in AI Mode : Google Speaks
One looming question in Google’s AI embrace is how it impacts the way it serves ads. Google took steps to answer this question over the past week. We assemble the evidence.
Mike Boland
May 28, 2025
Mike Boland
Mike Boland, senior analyst with Localogy, was one of Silicon Valley’s first tech reporters of the internet age as a staff reporter for Forbes magazine starting in 2000. His comments have appeared in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Apple Maps Stays Classy with Restaurants & Golf Courses
Apple Maps emboldened its local knowledge this week with place data for restaurants and golf courses. Specifically, it announced a collaboration with the MICHELIN Guide, The Infatuation, and Golf Digest to bring in better listings data in these categories.
Mike Boland
May 27, 2025
What’s Driving Yext’s $200M Debt Facility?
This week, Yext announced that it secured a $200 million debt facility from BlackRock. This replaces the revolving credit facility it had with Silicon Valley
Mike Boland
May 23, 2025
Google AI Mode Has its Oprah Moment
During this week’s I/O keynote. Google brought the transformative AI-centric search paradigm, AI Mode, from open beta (Google Labs) to widescale availability, at least for U.S. users.
Mike Boland
May 22, 2025
Bluehost Simplifies eCommerce for SMBs
Bluehost has announced a new open-source eCommerce play, meant to lower barriers for SMBs to sell online. It accomplishes this by simplifying the process of opening a store, managing it, and selling products.
Mike Boland
May 21, 2025
Yelp Ranks America’s Top Airport Brands
Yelp is back with its latest report, measuring the strength of various airport brands. Including staples like Hudson News and Starbucks, these are the brands that are often seen throughout airport terminals.
Mike Boland
May 20, 2025
Is Airbnb Becoming a Local Super App?
Airbnb this week took the latest step towards becoming a more holistic and comprehensive local services app. It’s now curating and offering local services and experiences that are relevant to bookings. This brings it closer to the holy grail of the on-demand economy: becoming a super app.
Mike Boland
May 16, 2025
The AI Era of Search: A Conversation with SearchMAS
These are transformative times for search, challenging its longstanding dominance as the front door to digital knowledge. But will that disruption displace Google or elevate it? It’s probably a bit of both, but mostly long-run upside according to SearchMAS co-founder Juan Pablo Nieto.
Mike Boland
May 15, 2025
Snap Map Reaches 400 Million Users
As the social mapping wars heat up, Snap has announced a milestone in its competitive play, Snap Map. The feature has surpassed 400 million monthly active users, which is a decent portion of Snap’s overall user base of 900 million monthly actives. This also makes it the most engaged social map.
Mike Boland
May 14, 2025
Tiger Pistol’s Latest Marketing Playbook Tackles Home Services
Less than a week after it dropped its last marketing playbook, Tiger Pistol is back with the latest in the series, this time focusing on local home services. This notably zeroes in on one vertical, whereas most of its previous marketing playbooks examined horizontal functions such as the art of marketing resellers.
Mike Boland
May 13, 2025
Who Will Benefit Most in a Post-TikTok America?
The deadline for TikTok to come up with a U.S. owner is approaching fast – now about a month away. Even though the deadline could
Mike Boland
May 9, 2025
Yelp Names America’s Top 100 Local Businesses
Last year, around this time, California Governor Gavin Newsom named May as the state’s Small Business Month. So as we enter the second annual commemoration,
Mike Boland
May 8, 2025
Thryv Grows SaaS Revenue 50 Percent in Q1
Thryv holdings announced Q1 earnings and the story is similar to Q4: SaaS continues to be the growth engine as it manages planned declines in its legacy print directories business.
Mike Boland
May 5, 2025
Tiger Pistol Games Out a Post-TikTok World
As TikTok’s fate as a U.S. operation continues to fluctuate at the whims of geopolitical favor, one hypothetical continues to tickle our speculative interest: What does a post-TikTok world look like? Tiger Pistol gives us its take.
Mike Boland
May 2, 2025
Scorpion Offers Masterclass in Agency Growth
Most marketing agencies hit a revenue ceiling in the $20 million range. Perhaps “ceiling” is the wrong term as it’s a permeable barrier – an
Mike Boland
May 1, 2025
U.S. Ad Spend: Good News & Bad News
During a time of economic uncertainty and retracted brand spending – when ad budgets are normally first to be slashed – ad spending is in high gear. Or at least it was. IAB’s 2024 U.S. advertising spend “actuals” are out, and they paint a positive picture… with some caveats.
Mike Boland
April 30, 2025
Yelp Launches 15 New Features & Updates in Spring Product Release
Yelp has announced its annual Spring product release. This is a mega drop of 15 new features and updates across Yelp. Highlights in this batch
Mike Boland
April 29, 2025
Professional Services Automation: Rocketlane
Rocketlane is pioneering what it calls professional services automation. Localogy sat down with co-founder and CEO Srikrishnan Ganesan.
Mike Boland
April 25, 2025
Is SMB Video Advertising Approaching an Inflection?
Barriers continue to fall for video production – an ongoing democratization process that has made its way to SMB marketing. This is a longstanding trend
Mike Boland
April 24, 2025
TikTok’s Local Search Ambitions Ratchet up With Reviews
TikTok’s latest move in local search is evident through a new feature it’s testing: place reviews. We examine the evidence.
Mike Boland
April 23, 2025