Mike Boland
Street Fight
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Past articles by Mike:
Why Social Media Giants Are Embracing Conversational AI
Generative and conversational AI seem to be taking over the world. The former entails generating images and text with keyword inputs… with results that are sometimes impressive, sometimes funny, and sometimes creepy. And the latter is all about AI-generated dialogues… with similar results. Sticking with conversational AI, much of it is based on Open AI’s Chat GPT technology. And we’ve seen… → Read More
Yext’s Foray into Conversational AI for Enterprises
Yext has launched an AI-powered chatbot in closed beta. Known as Yext Chat, it lets enterprises integrate a white-labeled chat function on their web properties. → Read More
Pinterest Leads the Charge on Shoppability
Even as Instagram pulls back on live shopping, another social platform is diving in further: Pinterest. → Read More
Hyperlocal Restaurant Advertising Hits CTV
Roku's new partnership with DoorDash builds a channel for CTV advertising for local restaurants that already work with DoorDash. → Read More
Google’s AI Chops and Local Search
ChatGPT celebrants have lauded it as a Google killer. But there's a problem with that narrative: Google has been all over AI for years. → Read More
Yelp Provides Peek into Local Commerce Misinformation and Other Bad Practices
Everyone tuned into local commerce knows that fraudulent local reviews are a problem. But how big is the problem, and what can platforms do to diminish it? → Read More
Amazon Gets into E-Commerce as a Service
Amazon announced that Buy with Prime, already available to third-party merchants on Amazon, will be available to non-Amazon merchants Jan 31, 2023. → Read More
Why Ad Spend Growth Will Likely Decline in 2023
Ad spend growth is likely to decline in 2023. That's partly due to the looming recession, but macroeconomic factors are hardly the only ones in play. → Read More
Amazon Takes a Page from the TikTok Playbook
Amazon took a page from the TikTok playbook to spur its latest advance. The company’s new feature is meant to drive e-commerce product discovery and purchases. → Read More
Instagram Becomes a Product Discovery Engine
Instagram has somehow conditioned its users to see it as a product discovery engine. Its feed is filled with fashion and food products … and users lap it up. → Read More
Innovation Brief: Facebook, Twitter & Tinder
This week, Street Fight's innovation brief series looks at Facebook's e-commerce play, Twitter Ticketed Spaces, and Tinder's latest integrations. → Read More
Innovation Brief: Amazon, Apple, and FCC Alerts
M7 Innovations Founder Matt Maher considers Amazon's Ring Car Cam, Apple's new picture-in-picture feature, and the FCC's latest alerts. → Read More
Innovation Brief: Google, Facebook & Netflix
This week, our innovation brief by Matt Maher looks at Google's latest machine learning strategy, Facebook's Watch play, and Netflix getting into e-commerce. → Read More
Mapping Innovations Accelerate for the Post-Covid Era
Mapping innovations by Apple, Google, and Snap are an indicator of where local commerce is headed, using augmented reality to improve business discovery. → Read More
Amazon’s Retail-as-a-Service Expands into Payments, AR, and Salons
Iterating on the AWS playbook by bringing tech-fueled logistical innovations to physical stores could be another way for Amazon to expand its revenue sources. → Read More
Augment My Town: Local’s Next Turf Battle
AR fuses the digital and physical. So, could it assist in the vexing and longstanding challenge of closing the online-offline gap? → Read More
What Emerging Tech is Driving Localized Brand Marketing?
Running an emerging tech-driven agency, M7 Innovations co-founder Matt Maher is on the front lines of marketing for brand clients like Panera and Bolle. → Read More
How Will Retail Redefine Itself in the ’20s?
After "retailpocalyse" rocked the 2010s, what will a redefined retail industry look like in the 2020s? Curbside pickup and stores-as-experiences are in store. → Read More
Can Immersive Marketing Boost Local Businesses?
AR's ability to add real-life interactivity to e-commerce gained traction in 2020. This could extend to a post-Covid world of touchless retail. → Read More
What’s the Fate of Location Intelligence in 2021?
The biggest thing we predict is location intelligence sector consolidation. This has already gotten started in 2020, considering Foursquare’s merger with Factual, and smaller deals like X-Mod… → Read More