This year, Google is all about celebrating Earth Day in new and interesting ways. Not only do they have a new interactive homepage doodle, but Google offices worldwide are hosting special Earth Day events. This includes an environmental fair for loyal Google users at the Mountain View, California headquarters, where participants can enjoy earth-friendly contests, speakers, and a cookout using parabolic solar cookers.

Working to make the world greener isn’t just for Earth Day. The Google offices have been carbon neutral since 2007, and launched a new website this week with questions that have lead to many of their environmental initiatives. For instance, how can a data center reduce its energy usage by half? How can the energy supply itself by made more eco-friendly? And how can renewable energy by made more economically feasible?

In 2007, fueled by many of these questions, Google initiated the largest corporate solar installation in the United States when they built panels on their Mountain View campus. Google was also inspired to initiate other eco-friendly measures, including donating to Google user’s favorite charities based on how they self-power their commutes – regardless of the crazy or creative method.

Google’s innovative green streak hasn’t stopped there. The company’s total clean energy investment has surpassed $350 million, including a second power purchase agreement, or PPA. Other new investments include the largest wind farm and solar project in the world, and a solar photovoltaic plant in Germany, their first in Europe. These investments won’t directly supply Google operations with energy, but the company believes they are solid business decisions, destined to inspire the development and usage of effective clean energies.

Earth Day is a perfect time to ask what we, as a society, can do to get closer to real sustainability. Hopefully, individuals and corporations across the globe will put forth a solid effort to reach sustainability, as well.

The post A Unique Earth Day Celebration appeared first on LocalGiant.

Once seen as the angel of death for the online business of the New York Times, the recently launched paywall has officially seen revenue from over 100,000 paying subscribers. At first glance, this is fairly promising.

What remains to be seen; however, are the effects of time. First of all, this was a promotional period. Numbers indicating how many readers renewed after its end have yet to be seen or processed. Second, the Times has a global audience of millions and it’s quite easy to assume that many of these initial 100,000 are among its most loyal; those that simply can’t imagine starting their mornings without it.

The proof of the program’s success or failure will come in future quarters as data surrounding recurring subscriptions and penetration into new markets and new subscribers becomes available. Still, the initial data is hard to argue. Revenues from digital media climbed $5.5 million to $95.9 million; a full seventeen percent of the company’s overall revenue for Q1 of 2011. Ad revenue shot up $3.6 million from its previous $80 million.

The battle over paid versus free online news content is far from over and media companies are constantly searching for new ways to monetize their sites. It has to be an incredible shock to an industry who, for so long, counted on your quarters being dropped into their machines on the street corner and checks being written to neighborhood paper boy. For the time being; however, it would seem that the Times is onto something.

The ultimate test will be in retained advertisers. Although it is a global powerhouse, The New York Times is still a regional newspaper with regional and small business advertisers. These businesses will want to ensure that their ads are being seen by the largest number of people possible and part of that is deciding whether they want to be seen by all New Yorkers or just those that subscribe, in one way or another, to the Times.

The post What Paywall? New York Times Clears 100,000 Online Subscribers appeared first on LocalGiant.

I'll be your waiter?

If one company has its way, however, a tablet computer may very well replace your favorite waiter. Enter E la carte. Envisioned as the link between your table and the kitchen, as well as the host’s stand, the device will let you handle almost every aspect of your meal without speaking to a member of the restaurant’s staff.

Here’s how it works: You sit at your table and, instead of opening menus, your options are displayed on a touchscreen. You simply make your selections, tap on your order, and wait. Eventually a human (at least until someone designs a food-delivery robot) arrives with your meal. After you’re finished you pay via the tablet, get up, and leave.

The system could be also be used to keep track of your prior orders and personalize the experience specifically to you. Frequent users of restaurant rewards programs could check their status and available points from the table. And, the potential to let the kids play a game or two while the adults enjoyed a quiet meal is too wonderful a prospect to overlook.

Restaurant owners will find it impossible to not take a look at this system, presumably while their wait staff watches from afar, hoping beyond hope that it crashes during the demonstration. According to E la carte, restaurants could see a 10% increase in the value of every order after the system is implemented. A staff of five could easily be reduced to two or even one during non-peak operating hours.

Those working in fine dining establishments have little to fear as it is doubtful that their patrons value efficiency over the overall dining experience. But, those in small family owned restaurants, as well as the major chains and neighborhood standards, might want to take notice. Their days of saying, “Hi. I’ll be taking care of you this evening,” may very well be coming to an end.

The post Please Touch Your Order: The Tablet That Might Cost Your Waiter Their Job appeared first on LocalGiant.

Remember when dreaming of exotic and far off lands was the stuff of imagination? If you wanted a glimpse into the world beyond your own walls you had to look in a glossy travel magazine or, if you were lucky, you knew someone who had recently traveled. It was usually a toss-up as to whether you were more excited than they were about their photos coming back.

Present day, Google Earth’s “Photos” layer already lets you see photo albums from people all over the world. Simply choose a place, zoom in, find the photo icons, and realize five hours later how much time you’ve spent on a virtual walkabout. This new feature makes viewing multiple photos from the same location even easier.

As always, the “Photos” layer must be checked. Once you’re in the vicinity of the area you’re visiting, you’ll notice that the icons representing user-submitted photos are now both large and small. Simply click on one of the larger icons to bring up a cluster of photos and use the left and right arrow keys to view them. The days of clicking individual photos are officially a memory.

Getting a feel for a new area has never been easier. Exploring a potential vacation site, new home, or just enjoying the photos that other people have posted from around the world is now a single key press away. And, I’d imagine, the number of hours people spend viewing other people’s travel albums just saw a significant bump.

Local business owners need to jump on this immediately. You now have the ability to create a cluster of photos around your business, upload them for free, and get a larger icon on the viewer’s screen. You can instantly become a destination rather than a listing. And, at a time when every advertising penny matters, an increase in the size of your photo icon on Google Earth can do nothing but help you.

The post Google Earth Introduces Photo Viewing with a Single Key appeared first on LocalGiant.

The telecommunications giant AT&T has announced a new software development kit in an attempt to expand the use of local advertisements within the mobile world. With over 170 million local searchers each month within their own network and the way they connect advertisers to big networks like Bing and WHERE, it’s no wonder they now have plans to create a greater and more targeted reach to consumers.

As mentioned in Forbes, the mobile SDK will be offered to developers in order to help them integrate ads from all AT&T advertisers into their apps for better and more specialized advertising. This creates a great alternative to Google’s AdMob and gives developers a a greater chance for profit since most companies are willing to invest more money on locally targeted ads which tend to have better sales turnaround.

According to an interview of CEO and President of AT&T Interactive David Krantz, the company is currently going through Beta testing and is said to have “exciting initial results”. With approximately a million advertisers and thousands of sales representatives in the AT&T networks, their Yellow Pages group provides free data from their API to third party software developers.

This new mobile advertising SDK certainly has the potential to reshape how mobile advertising is conducted and with it’s first quarter revenues down 172 million from last year’s figures, it’s very exciting to see how it will affect not only their overall revenue but also how it will affect the millions of people worldwide who rely on mobile advertising today.

The post AT&T Announces a Mobile Advertising SDK appeared first on LocalGiant.

Recap of a recent PayPal blog post:

Brick and mortar stores and those online are definitely overlapping with enterprises like WHERE. A customer gets a lot of choices standing in a retail store accessing information with internet capability and QR codes on their mobile phone, and at the same time the local business wins too.

In order for PayPal customers to use the service for local transactions, it sees the need to make itself available in the WHERE mobile application. Analyst Day’s John Donahue points out that eBay is evolving into a leader in the retail arena by becoming more accommodating in every way possible to the customer. It is so important to focus on local and mobile. Added onto acquiring Milo in 2010, this will enhance the overall worth to all potential customers. Consumers can shop with any method from any location, and at the same time any type of retail outlet, big or small, benefits since we are an asset, not a competitor, with the businesses themselves.

It looks like PayPal has found its way into the local market by making itself available with in-store shopping. However, I foresee somewhat mild achievements unless the actual flow of it works flawlessly. It will be intriguing though to witness the combo of mobile generated payments along with offers and inquiries that accompany this method of doing business.

As a recap, here are actual statistics for WHERE:

Revenue for 2010 = $17 M, and the 2011 projection hits $40 M.

CityGrid, Zvents and AT&T top the list as the main sources for WHERE advertisers. Direct advertiser connections are not common.

If this concept of overlapping local shopping with online transaction completion does achieve its intended target, both the business and the customer will enjoy the benefits of a very streamlined point of sale.

The post eBay’s Goal With Its New Baby Where appeared first on LocalGiant.

When Groupon acquired Pelago-Whrrl recently, it was not uncommon for some to be reminded of eBay taking ownership of Where. Larger enterprises stepping into “hyper-local” easily comes to mind as the theme shared by these two events. But, maybe not. There is no doubt that expertise was an incentive in both situations, but outside of that, each acquisition had its own specific influences.

Pelago-Whrrl’s intriguing products and services definitely caught Groupon’s eye. This fits right in with Groupon’s intention to expand its offerings in the marketplace with more and more products including Groupon Classic, Groupon Now and Groupon Stores.

It is quite apparent that Groupon wants to capture new customers and handle the whole scope of customer relations; all this was up to now Foursquare’s territory. SMBs won’t be its only target, as it dedicates attention to bigger fish and name brands as well.

When things run smoothly, Milo and Paypal hook-up perfectly with Where, which is why eBay took possession. Only if a lawsuit comes into play will any patents owned by Where be used as a defense. There might be a myriad of location based service patents out there, and they might have a purpose, but they did not increase prices enough to notice much. eBay has been outspoken about all this being based on offline and online connection more than the LBS and mobile increases in statistics. Since that is Milo’s main goal and something Where can be supportive of, the end result will be more mobile and online users heading to a local outlet.

Local, as the most common marketplace, has needed and wanted to take better advantage of the huge customer base that really enjoys buying in-store. This aspect was almost missed before LBS and all the mobile enhancements. Checking out all the details is great online, but the majority love to shop at a brick and mortar location. Even the best predictions for days to come put e-commerce sales statistics at 10 to 15 percent of the total retail sales, which is an increase over the 4 percent, or so, it holds now.

It really is sort of a twist that mobile will go further with e-commerce than the big names like Amazon and eBay. Now, mobile is truly becoming “digital meets the everyday world”, represented remarkably by these two recent acquisitions; however, the characteristics of each are definitely different in their primary motivation. Fortunately, small businesses should reap the benefits that these type of hook-ups provide; it certainly is a plus when the customer comes in with a lot of information already in hand.

The post Ideas Regarding Recent Groupon and eBay Hook-ups appeared first on LocalGiant.

Now, when you visit Google Map Maker and access the United States’ map you can enhance the information with everything you personally know about your own region. There is almost nowhere that visitors will not have the most recent details available through the site’s 187 worldwide map choices to select from.

Even though Map Maker offers the changes immediately, the data needs to be published before Google Maps offers it up. This process is much quicker than before because, previously, changes were taken care of in big groups, which involved a much longer approval time. As the result of a better publishing system, this much faster way to accept new information makes it very streamlined. When you add new details in Map Maker, it only takes a few brief moments to be approved, and then they are up and running on Google Maps.

Updated changes about what is happening right in your own area are available. You will know about the latest restaurant opening or the brand new place to do your work-out, and you will be able to enlighten others to your most recent favorite places as well; all this in almost real time.

Now, more than ever, Google Maps provides us with a current world view, all because of the combined intentions of the people behind Map Maker and the addition of the advanced system. You get the end product by taking advantage of immediate edits offered by all the visitors on the planet when you visit Map Maker. You can get all the details when you visit the site to learn about other places or teach others about your places.

Just visualize all the benefits for small businesses. With this sort of technology word gets out quicker to promote products, services, and locations.

The post Keeping Up With a Fast-Paced Planet appeared first on LocalGiant.

Although the mobile-based deals site is like its larger competitors in many ways, Scoutmob received a flood of publicity recently due to raising a $1.5 million round.

Upon closer inspection, Scoutmob reveals itself to be a radical business model upending traditional group buying. In other words, those who use the site don’t pay for the deals in advance – they are instead incentives for consumers to visit the location.

So, what part of Scoutmob’s business model is radical? The company charges only $2.00-$3.00 for each customer it succeeds in delivering to the business, much like OpenTable. The businessperson isn’t sacrificing large amounts of cash since there is no payment upfront to the SMB.

Scoutmob depends on the Smartphone’s GPS for tracking the consumer’s location and billing the advertiser. When an advertised deal is redeemed in a store, Scoutmob attaches that action with the consumer’s location and uses that information to know when the advertiser needs to be billed.

According to Scoutmob co-founder David Payne, the company owes its growth completely to word-of-mouth advertising. He believes this leads to a higher quality user, instead of the one-time or extremely price-sensitive buyers that often come to businesses through other deal sites.

There are also plans to build a big sales channel, according to Payne, which will be smaller than but somewhat comparable to the commonly-known daily deal sites.

The post Traditional Deals Model Upended by Scoutmob appeared first on LocalGiant.

Bill Dinan of Telmetrics said the new data was obtained through the company’s past experiences and recording calls. What relationships did Telmetrics discover between the call times and media used to generate them? When SEM ads were used, calls averaged 1.8 minutes, which is an increased of 39% from one year ago. When the online yellow pages were used, calls averaged 2.1 minutes. And when print yellow page ads were used, calls averaged an impressive 2.25 minutes per call.

The data produced even more shocking results, with calls generated by mobile ads lasting an average of 3.7 minutes. Mobile is, of course, a relatively new way to disseminate ads. Dinan advised caution, as the nature of this medium makes call recording less frequent, resulting in less information on the content and quality of these calls.

Fortunately, mobile-generated calls have an implied lead quality. This is consistent with other evidence suggesting mobile users are better, more available leads for advertisers in general. The increase in the length of call times from SEM ads was also attributed by Dinan to more effective local campaigns and improved targeting.

As customers move to a more mobile app focus, the small business owner must move as well. It may be time to hire a company that can get you listed in local search engines so that you will appear high in the SERPs that will send more customers your way.

The post Longer Calls Possible Through Mobile Ads, According to Telmetrics appeared first on LocalGiant.