The Near Memo
Exploring the big stories for the week at the intersection of local business & marketing across the spectrum of search, social and commerce. With Greg Sterling, Mike Blumenthal & David Mihm.
- Update frequency
- every 6 days
- Average duration
- 31 minutes
- Episodes
- 227
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
Google 3-Pack: New Branded Ads, GBP Neglect, and Container Retail Models (feat. Krystal Taing)
Krystal Taing, Director of Pre-Sales Solutions for Uberall and Google Business Profile Platinum Product Expert, joins Greg and David for this episode of the Near Memo.
The trio discusse…
Whitespark’s Effort to Reach an Underserved Part of the SMB Market with Its SEO Services
Allie Margeson, Director of SEO Services for Whitespark, joins Greg and David for this episode of the Near Memo. She takes a deeper dive into the logic behind, and the mechanics of, Whi…
Near Media X NearSt: Google’s Insatiable Appetite for Local Inventory Data
“Mike’s Excellent European Adventure” continues this week, so Nick Brackenbury, CEO of SaaS company NearSt joins Greg and David for a fast-moving conversation about his company’s growth…
How Nerdy Nuts Co-Founder Blended Creativity, PR, Influencer Marketing, and Tiktok to Fuel Success
This episode breaks from our typical Near Memo format in two big ways: 1) at 50 minutes, it’s roughly double the length of a typical episode, and 2) rather than a roundtable discussion,…
Google goes Astroturf, iOS elevates search but fails, Search alternatives are blooming, why?
Google doubles down on SMB deception to achieve political goals - Google recently sent out an email to its massive base of business clients asking them to Tell us what policy issues mat…
The demise of local audiologists, Content bots for local news, Facebook shutters Neighborhoods
On October 16th, hearing aids for folks with low to moderate hearing loss will now be sold over the counter, no longer requiring testing, visits to the audiologists or a prescription. T…
Google Quick Read- useful or Gen Z bone? Why are Google Posts rejected? Why Nextdoor needs local seo
Google is testing a new label associated with content that is quick to read on both mobile and desktop. The label appears with either the text ‘Quick Read’ or ‘< 5 Min Read’, with seve…
Shopify Influencer Play, Google’s Human Content Update; Why now? Google’s AI First Approach is wrong
Shopify Cretes an Influencer Marketplace - Of all of the networks that have attempted to create a way for businesses to easily connect with influencers to help market their products, …
Yelp selling its business data, Google’s Review Spam algo nukes many legit reviews, Tik-Tok for brands
Yelp has recently publicized their newest revenue stream; selling merchant data to marketers. It seems sleazy and is likely just a money grab by Yelp
Day in and day out, small businesses…
Google whines about iMessage, Axios acquired by Cox, Facebook B2B segments
After dozens of failed messaging starts, Google has been on a campaign to get Apple to integrate with their telco favored RCS messaging service. It's not clear why Apple would want to d…
Shopify invests in email, End of location intelligence, E-commerce not eating retail, it is retail
Segment 1: Shopify’s investment in Klaviyo improves Shopify’s enterprise cred & may signal acquisition
In a move to protect and enhance their core product with enterprise, Shopify’s stra…
Instagram evolves (?), Google turns off reviews for women’s clinics , Google Commerce SERP Trends
Instagram evolves (?) to target Gen Z but leaves others behind
Instagram and Facebook are attempting to cater to the consumption patterns of Gen Z but in doing so are alienating their …
Amazon & Google pander to the FTC, American Privacy Act: Opt-In/Out Battle, Instagram goes local
Amazon AND Google both try to demonstrate their anti fake review bonafides. Both fail to do their job and offer little in the way of substantive reform to prevent review abuses.
The Ame…
Indie Bookstores Rebound, Privacy abuses both public & private, Ages 18-25 shun Google for Tik-Tok
In the past year somewhere on the order of 300 independent bookstores have opened. The need for discovery, serendipity, community and increased opportunities are all likely factors in t…
EU passes Digital Markets & Digital Services Acts to rein in big tech & prevent fraud & deception
The Digital Markets Act attempts to create a new framework for understanding and regulating digital monopolies to improve competitiveness and create opportunities for smaller online bus…
Entities not keywords, key to search, Google Offers shows playbook, Data privacy even more important
Time to stop lamenting “zero click” search and to embrace the “messy middle” of Google’s entity search and barnacle SEO. Understanding how Google has remade all of search from inventory…
Google Search Quality Declining?, Google Local Test & Self-preferencing, Shifting search behaviors
There's a growing perception that Google is in decline or dying. In an article in the Atlantic, Charlie Warzel interviews Marie Haynes, Dannie Sullivan and Rand Fishkin to try to unders…
The power of great CX, What % of searches are local? Antitrust laws & how marketing might change
Chewy’s provides great CX and it goes viral: When a dog owner’s pet died and they asked Chewy to refund their unused food, the company went above and beyond. In doing so, they demonstr…
Amazon doing Local Ads, Yep it, Apple BNPL & Search developments, Auto created Google Ads showing up
Amazon has been posting new job positions for “rare opportunity to join a start-up business within Amazon Ads and play a strategic role in building the future of Local Ads”. It is hard …
Apple search engine, GBP product kerfuffle, Walmart stores to be used for 3rd party local delivery
Rumors have surfaced that Apple will roll out a general purpose search engine at WWDC this week. Will it be browser based? Available on the desktop? Apple has historically favored “sear…