Shoppers love Groupon. Retailers…not so much. It’s easy to see why. You offer your product or service at a deep discount to grab users’ attention. Then Groupon pays you about half that discounted price. Then a zillion Groupon shoppers come into your store so you have to sell out all your inventory at that teeny-tiny price. Then none of them ever come back to buy anything at full price. The secret to loving Groupon is, “Don’t be stupid,” according to ZDNet blogger David Gewirtz. READ MORE
Offering dollar-off coupons is so 20th century! Instead of simply porting over your tried-and-true newspaper strategy, try unleashing the power of Foursquare by creating incentives geared for its users. That’s the advice from Foursquare expert Carmine Gallo in a post at Harvard Business Review. READ MORE
This holiday shopping season eBay will be making it extra easy for people to find the items they’re looking for via the latest version of its RedLaser mobile app, which enables users to search for prices on all kinds of items by either scanning a bar code or QR code or typing in the product’s name. Previously the app has shown the price for an item at both online and local brick-and-mortar retailers, but now RedLaser users can also see a selection of local retailers that have the item in stock and that allow for purchasing it through the mobile app. Shoppers can now complete a transaction using PayPal and pick up the purchased item later at the store. READ MORE
We’ve known for a long time now that “Big Brother is watching.” But a GPS-tracking case now being argued before the U.S. Supreme Court could change Big Brother’s role from “watcher” to “tracker.” And it could affect how we view the role of technology in our everyday lives. READ MORE
OpenTable is a rare tech industry survivor. The service, which matches diners with available restaurant reservations was founded in 1998, survived the dot-com bust of a decade ago and launched a successful IPO in 2009. Going public means, well, being public, so it’s public knowledge that the company had revenues of more than $34 million in the last quarter. They did it by placing 23 million diners in 16,000 restaurants. READ MORE
Heavy users of Google Maps will be charged for using the service, reports BBC News. After January 1, Google will charge for the Google Maps API when more than 25,000 map “hits” are made in a day. READ MORE
Google AdWords is a service that enables you to create and run ads for your business that run on Google and its advertising network; you pay only when people click your ads. AdWords also includes location targeting so you can target ads to specific locations, which is great for small businesses that only have customers in certain regions or those that want to target top-performing geographic areas so more clicks translate into actual sales. Google just announced it has a revamped AdWords Location Targeting Tool that will make it easier to find and get more detail on target locations. READ MORE
Location-based apps such as Foursquare and Gowalla are great, but do you really want to know where your friends are—all of the time? Probably not. Banjo provides a useful solution: The app lets you specify a radius for the notifications you receive and alerts you when your friends are within that radius. READ MORE
BuyWithMe has discovered that acquisition as a growth strategy does not always work. The No. 3 daily deals site behind Groupon and Living Social has laid off the bulk of its staff in what is described as a “last ditch effort” to sell the company, according to the firm’s former marketing director Ian Boschen. READ MORE
Google has just released a host of mobile apps designed to help consumers in their search for businesses and products. These new products will take consumers from search to locations—both real and virtual. READ MORE
