Is Myspace coming back? Owners confirm relaunch plans

The platform’s owners say it will return. Online, users are debating whether Myspace can recreate its old appeal in the current social media landscape.

mashable.com

EP 266 - Cyrus Shepard: What Local Brand Actually Means to Google and AI

Cyrus Shepard, founder of Zyppy, joins Greg Sterling and Mike Blumenthal for Part 2 of the Near Memo brand-building series — this time on the technical side: how Google and AI systems actually model a...

nearmedia.co

Future of Websites, Review Abstracts, Search Shift, Apple Sues OpenAI

Local Websites in a Sea of Slop People increasingly feel that the "open web" is over. The web is now dominated by a small number of powerful "gatekeepers." Beyond this, more paywalls are going up, le...

nearmedia.co

EP 265 - Decoding Local Branding with John Jantsch

We explore local branding with John Jantsch, examining how to build trust through offline distinctiveness, mine customer interviews to identify primary differentiators and leverage programmatic referr...

nearmedia.co

How AI Slop is Changing the Real Value of a Small Business Website

YouTube video by Near Media

youtube.com

Gemini for GBP, Siri Is Better, Downstream AI, Yelp's Big Win

Gemini for GBP Is a Big Deal Last month Google announced new Gemini features for small businesses. Rolling out this month (except in Europe), it's a significant development. It's not just another lam...

nearmedia.co

Federal judge's ruling gives Yelp a leg up in antitrust case against Google

A federal judge agreed to recognize another judge's determination that Google has a monopoly over internet searches.

courthousenews.com

Facebook (Local) Search, Local Products, What's After Reviews, ChatGPT Erosion

Facebook Local Search: Take 6 More than 15 years ago, people-powered "Q&A" or "answer engines" attempted to bring real-time first-person knowledge to user questions in contrast to search. Facebook br...

nearmedia.co

Ask Maps Listicles, Links vs. Agentic Search, AI Referrals, Google's Antitrust Appeal

Google's Ask Maps Listicles Even as Google is starting to crack down on listicles designed to manipulate AI, the company is generating its own lists for local discovery. It's creating home-grown list...

nearmedia.co

Independent bookstores are multiplying, although many people still think they're dying out

Allison Hill, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, is used to strangers expressing sympathy when they learn what she does for a living. The decline of physical bookstores remains so embedded ...

yahoo.com

There's a ton to say about Google I/O, the announcements and their implications. But right now I want to comment on "the vibe" at I/O. I used to attend annually but haven't recentl...

There's a ton to say about Google I/O, the announcements and their implications. But right now I want to comment on "the vibe" at I/O. I used to attend annually but haven't recently. I watched the l...

linkedin.com

Google's AI Box, Siri & Spark, Gemini Trust, Zero Traffic

Google Launches AI Powered Search Box AI Mode now has more than 1 billion users, according to Liz Reid today at Google I/O. Many SEOs had been predicting that AI Mode would become the new SERP. Googl...

nearmedia.co

Claude for SMBs, AI Backlash, ChatGPT Ads, AI Darwinism, Hardware Hurdles

Dialog: Exchange Number 39

localdialog.com

ChatGPT Ads, Claude Goes Local, AI Ranking Factors, Google's 91% Ad Revenue

ChatGPT Expand Ads, Offers Self-Service Driven by necessity, ChatGPT is rapidly expanding its ad platform. Earlier this week, OpenAI announced it was making ads more widely available. There are now t...

nearmedia.co

Why "Brand Fame" is the New Local SEO 🏆

YouTube video by Near Media

youtube.com

Local AI Trust, CTRs Up, Commodity Content, Agentic Search Vision

Yelp: 57% Using AI for Local Search Yelp recently upgraded its AI assistant, expanding capabilities and integrating third party tools (e.g., ZocDoc, DoorDash), to enable users to "take action." Simul...

nearmedia.co

Legal Hallucinations, Review Changes, 16% Mobile CTRs, Legal Ads in AI Mode

This is Near Media's new monthly legal marketing newsletter.

nearmedia.co

Ask Maps, PoS Penalty, Short List, AIO Accuracy

Ask Maps Is the Future I was recently in Oaxaca, Mexico for a short vacation with friends and posted on LinkedIn about some of my real-world experiences with Ask Maps, ChatGPT (with precise location)...

nearmedia.co

Mark Zuckerberg offered to 'help' Elon Musk with DOGE in 2025

According to court documents, Mark Zuckerberg texted Musk approvingly about his work with the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

engadget.com

Google News Now Prominently Featuring Polymarket Bets

Google News has started showing Polymarket bets alongside actual news articles.

futurism.com

Apple Maps Ads, OpenAI's Retreat, GBP Benchmarks, Socially Addictive

Local Ads Coming to Apple Maps Apple will be launching local ads in Maps in the next few months, according to a report from Bloomberg. Apple Business Connect (soon Apple Business) listings must be cl...

nearmedia.co

Attorneys Embrace AI, LSA Secrets, Lawyer Finding, Review Diversification

The first issue of Near Media's new monthly legal marketing newsletter.

nearmedia.co

Google Slips, TikTok Local Feed, Ads Not AIOs, Social Media on Trial

Google Review Dominance Slips Near Media behavioral and survey research has found repeatedly that, across categories, reviews are a/the top consumer-decision driver. And despite still-rampant fraud, ...

nearmedia.co

Winning in 2026 Reviews Ai and the New Rules of Search

Near Media’s new user-behavior research reveals what prospects really do before they click—how trust forms, reviews sway decisions, and AI is reshaping local search. Join us for actionable insights to...

go.gatherup.com

Local Pack Ads, Google Ka-Ching!, Claude Super Bowl Ads, AI Ankle-Biters

Local Pack Ads Explosion As part of Google's increasingly aggressive monetization of the SERP, it's blurring the differences between ads and organic links at the top of the page. But it's also puttin...

nearmedia.co