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WICN Business Beat Interview

WICN Business Beat Interview

by Ben Saren on Sep Thu, 2008 in CitySquares, Local Search, Locally Owned

A few months back at the Somerville Local First launch party I met a fella named Steve D’Agostino. We talked briefly about what CitySquares was doing, and he spoke passionately about what he’s doing in Worcester for Worcester Local First. We hit it off pretty quickly, and realized how well aligned our missions are. I [...]

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Locally Owned Businesses: Superior Businesses

by Ben Saren on Jan Mon, 2008 in Locally Owned

Locally owned businesses, aka independant businesses, aka Mom and Pops, are superior to big box retailers in so many ways. Even though I believe this with every nerve in my body sometimes I forget the nuances and subtle qualities that really drive this point home. I’m guilty of shopping at chains and non-locally owned businesses [...]

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Google’s Feet On The Street

by Ben Saren on Aug Wed, 2007 in Local Search, Locally Owned

On Monday Google announced their Google Local Business Referrals (LBR) program in which “local representatives” (essentially 1099 contractors) are paid to a) collect local business information, b) submit that information to Google’s map/listings services, and c) spread the word about AdSense. Google will pay it’s local reps $10 for each business submitted, but not so [...]

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Doing this “Local” Thing

by Ben Saren on May Wed, 2007 in CitySquares, Locally Owned

Ali made a delicious dinner the other night; lobster ravioli with her own sherry sauce. It was absolutely delicious. I guessed that she handmade the raviolis all by herself, kidding of course (right?). She bought them at Dave’s Fresh Pasta, down the street. At Dave’s you’ll find homemade and handmade pastas – very high quality, [...]

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User Reviews

User Reviews

by Ben Saren on Feb Mon, 2007 in CitySquares, Local Search, Locally Owned, Social Networking

I’m going way out on a limb here, and surely many of you may disagree with me, but I feel pretty strongly about this, as a serious consumer and as a serious business person running a startup that connects consumers with local merchants.
Greg Sterling posted an interesting piece on his blog today titled “Opportunity: Online [...]

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Citysquares.com: Part 1

Citysquares.com: Part 1

by Ben Saren on Feb Tue, 2007 in CitySquares, Entrepreneurship, Local Search, Locally Owned

Today I had a meeting with the founders of Spot Story, Aron and Matthew. I briefly met them at WebInno last week. It was at the end of the evening and the room was clearing out, they were still fielding questions and performing demos. We spoke for a couple minutes, exchanged business cards and promised [...]

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Local Merchants and Adapting to Change

by Ben Saren on Jan Fri, 2007 in CitySquares, Entrepreneurship, Local Search, Locally Owned

A very interesting post by John Kelsey at The Kelsey Group. Very outspoken and candid reality check for small businesses, and I happen to think he’s right on the money here. I’m reminded of a conversation I had a couple weeks ago with a gentleman in New Hampshire, who was referred to me by a [...]

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Local Merchants: Do they get it?

by Ben Saren on Dec Fri, 2006 in CitySquares, Local Search, Locally Owned

That’s really the billion dollar question isn’t it? Local search was recently labeled by a friend of mine as “The Holy Grail of the Internet.” I think that might be stretching it a bit, but for the sake of argument, let’s call it The Promised Land. After all, so many are trying to get [...]

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