MySpace started off as a hub for indie bands to connect with their fans. Now, with a new partnership with the IAC/InterActiveCorp-owned Citysearch, it's hoping to do the same for the likes of bars, clubs, and restaurants.
Called "MySpace Local," the new section on the News Corp.-owned MySpace will be rooted in existing listings from Citysearch (restricted to major U.S. cities) that are souped up with social features like the ones that you might see on a band or celebrity's MySpace page (photos, videos, comments, and the like). It's launching with just "restaurants," "bars," and "nightlife" categories, but will eventually expand--and it'll only be available to a select number of users this week before rolling out to the rest of MySpace's U.S. users.
"We're using the tools of new media to make the discovery as social and therefore as relevant as possible," said Jeff Berman, president of sales and marketing at MySpace, in a conference call on Tuesday. "The first thing you will see are ratings and reviews from your actual friends. When a reviewer is anonymous or unknown, it's hard to say whether you should care what they think."
Eventually, MySpace Local will highlight reviews from celebrities, "influencers," and power users with "street cred." There will also be new features like menus and possibly an online reservation tool.
This move will put MySpace in competition with fast-growing reviews site Yelp, which has been dealing with image and credibility issues recently but which has nevertheless been catching up to Citysearch in reach.
It'll also present more opportunities for local advertising. The social network has been courting small advertisers with a program called MyAds. But there will be big brand advertisers on MySpace Local, too, with Outback Steakhouse and Coors signing on for the launch.
Citysearch, which recently overhauled its site, also syndicates some of its content to AOL.
Berman said that research showed about 50 percent of active Citysearch users have MySpace profiles that they check at least once a month. "There is healthy overlap, but there is also a healthy new audience to be reached," he said.
This post was expanded at 10:54 a.m. PDT.
Whether you're moving to a new place or you just want to be more familiar with your surroundings, there are a variety of sites on the Web that fill you in on everything from restaurants to businesses to apartments in your area.
Find some businesses
BooRah If you're only looking for restaurants, BooRah is for you. The site features information on how to get to a restaurant, but really shines when you read through the informative reviews from users and consider the "similar restaurant" tab, which features a listing of local eateries that are similar to your search. Also good: The site's "explore" tool, which lets you look through the city your restaurant is in to find other eateries. It is not as full-featured as Yelp, but BooRah is a fine alternative if you want to find a place to eat tonight.
CitySearch makes it simple to find places in your area.
(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET Networks)CitySearch With a revamped site that includes new features and Facebook Connect support, CitySearch is a solid alternative for those who want to get to know their surroundings. The site gives you the option to find bars, restaurants, shopping locations, and more. Each page includes a description by an editor, supplemented by user reviews. In most cases, those user reviews provide valid insight into different locales.
InsiderPages If you're looking for specific type of businesses in your area, InsiderPages is a great resource. You start in a city of your choosing and input keywords like "dentist" or "plumber" to find all the companies providing those services in the area. Once you find a company, InsiderPages displays reviews it takes from CitySearch and other sites, and it includes a description of the business that was written by users who have been there.
FindnTell FindnTell is a useful site, although it's only got New York City info right now. It allows you to search for local businesses anywhere in the U.S. and uses Google Maps to make it easier to find places. It's designed well and its listings are informative.
NearbyNow If you're looking for specific products, try this site. It features categories ranging from appliances to cell phones to luggage. Once you input your location and choose a category, you'll be brought to a page detailing products that are available and where you can get them in your area. Looking for a Stilettoi t satellite radio? It's available at the Best Buy 20 miles from your home and it costs $250. That's the kind of information NearbyNow will provide and it comes in especially handy when you know you need something and you have no idea if it's available. It's a unique service.
TripAdvisor It might not be designed specifically for those who want information about their neighborhood, but TripAdvisor is still a great place to go if you want to find out about hotels or other tourist locations in your area. Whenever I want to get out of the house for a night or simply want to check out something notable in my area, TripAdvisor is my first stop.
Yahoo Local Yahoo Local reminds me of Yelp in quite a few ways. It includes a huge listing of businesses, the option to create reviews, and its page design makes it easy to search around the site. And thanks to the massive Yahoo community, it's also one of the more active sites in this roundup, featuring numerous reviews on restaurants, bars, shopping malls, and other frequented locales in your area. That said, it doesn't have the same social flavor as Yelp, and its listings pages are a bit cluttered. Regardless, it's worth using for a second opinion.
YellowBot is simpler than CitySearch.
(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET Networks)YellowBot If you're looking to find places and you don't want to deal with all the extras that sites like CitySearch offer, use YellowBot. The site makes it simple, with two search boxes entitled, "What" and "Where." As you might expect, you're only required to input what you're looking for and where you want to find it and within seconds, you'll have a page displaying the company's user rating, reviews by those who have been patrons of the firm, and contact information. The site also finds reviews from across the Web to supplement its pages.
Yelp If you're looking for the best local search service on the Web, go to Yelp. The site has it all. According to the company it now has over 5 million user reviews and based on my searches, I believe it--nothing was left out. But where Yelp really shines is in its coverage. Regardless of whether you sign up for the site or not, you'll find more cities in Yelp than in any other service in this roundup and I found that since the community is much larger, there are more reviews, giving Yelp an advantage over competitors. (On the other hand, there are questions about the credibility of Yelp business pages.)
Apartments, events, and more
ApartmentRatings Looking for a new apartment and don't know where to begin? Check out ApartmentRatings. Once you input a zip code into the site's search box, you'll find a listing of apartments in the area. Once you click on a property you're interested in, tenant reviews tell you if it's worth living there. I've used the site in the past and the reviews are spot on. If you're moving into an apartment, don't do anything before you consult ApartmentRatings.
Craigslist What good would a local site roundup be without Craigslist? As if you need to be told, Craigslist is the single destination to find anything you want in your area. Whether it's a used couch or open slots on a softball team, you can find it all on Craigslist. And since it's such a popular destination, there's no shortage of local information. It's one of the best destinations in this roundup.
Upcoming helps you find out what to do tonight.
(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET Networks)Upcoming Upcoming includes information about upcoming events in your area, such as conferences, concerts, and other social events. But what sets the site apart is its geotagging, which allows you to search for events by neighborhood or general area. And if you meet someone at a show and you want do something with them next weekend, you can friend them on the site and see where they're going next.
Zvents If you're looking for something to do this weekend, Zvents is worth visiting. It automatically determines your location and lets you search through all the events that are happening in your area. Whether you want to check out the free concert at your neighborhood hangout or the big event at the local arena, Zvents has it all. It's my go-to destination when I want to go out.
A correction was made to this post. Read below for details.
Photo-sharing site Photobucket announced Thursday that it has inked a deal with T-Mobile that makes it a provider of a mobile photo service for T-Mobile customers. According to the company, users will be able to send photos directly from their mobile phone to their Photobucket album, their PC hard drive, or any e-mail address. To use the app, customers will need to download it onto their BlackBerry Curve, Pearl, or any one of three Windows Mobile devices. The app is available in a free 21-day trial. Once that period is up, subscribers can choose to keep using the free version or purchase the full software for a one-time fee of $19.99.
Community discovery service Citysearch announced Thursday that its new site design and new features have officially gone live. According to the company, users will have access to its new "hyper-local" search that enables them to find and share local information and recommendations with friends in social networks across the Web. The revamped site boasts 150 local city guides and information on over 75,000 cities and neighborhoods nationwide, the company claims. With the help of Facebook Connect, users can sign in to Citysearch with their Facebook usernames and share their local reviews on the popular social network. All of Citysearch's new features are live now on its homepage.
Peer lending company LendingClub.com announced that it has raised $12 million of Series B funding in a round that was led by Morgenthaler Ventures. The company also announced that Pamela Kramer, former chief marketing officer at MarketTools, has joined the company as its own chief marketing officer. LendingClub did not disclose how it will put the funding to use.
Personal finance site Wesabe launched a new version of its financial management tools for banks and credit unions Wednesday. Dubbed Wesabe SpringBoard, the service will offer customers a "smart statement" that allows them to view their account data and guide them in savings and creating financial goals. The service also boasts community features that will allow users to share advice, support, and tips for acquiring more wealth. Along with the software, users will be able to use widgets for the Mac Dashboard or Vista Widget pane to have access to their information. Wesabe declined to disclose availability or pricing information.
Correction at 5:00 p.m. PDT: The Photobucket/T-Mobile deal is not exclusive.
Citysearch is still ahead, butupstart rival Yelp is catching up. Good thing Citysearch has brought in some much-needed new social features.
(Credit: Compete.com)Citysearch, the online business directory owned by Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp, has gotten a full makeover. It's available now at beta.citysearch.com--there's a more streamlined and Ajax-y interface, but a few important features have been tweaked as well. According to company representatives, this is about a year and a half in the making.
First of all, instead of focusing on a select number of metro areas, Citysearch has expanded to a whopping 75,000 towns and neighborhoods, meaning that you can narrow down your focus to New York's East Village or Los Angeles' Culver City. Additionally, there's Facebook Connect integration, meaning that you can see what your Facebook friends have recommended or reviewed on Citysearch. Also on the social side of things, reviewing businesses on Citysearch is easier and more up-front. Previously, there had been more attention on editorial reviews as opposed to user reviews.
And Facebook approves, apparently. "At Facebook, we've found that remarkable things happen when you get trust, user control and identity right--people share more information, and become more open and connected," Facebook communications czar Elliot Schrage said in a joint release. "Citysearch's innovative new site shows how Facebook Connect can help information flow faster through a site while creating a filter for users to engage with localized content through the lens of their friends, family and colleagues."
That's a big deal for Citysearch: fast-growing start-up Yelp has started to gain some market share in the "user-generated reviews" department. According to traffic firm Compete.com, Yelp is still smaller but catching up. (Citysearch, for that matter, syndicates some of its content to big portals like AOL.)
Finally, Citysearch has launched a mobile site compatible with a number of different browsers and handsets--yes, including Apple's iPhone.
A Los Angeles-based law firm with a history of targeting online media companies for click fraud filed suit Tuesday against Citysearch, the directory site owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, as well as Ticketmaster, the ticketing site that IAC is attempting to spin out into a separate publicly traded company.
"Citysearch.com is defrauding its advertising customers of millions of dollars by not only turning a blind eye to click fraud, but in fact encouraging it as well," a statement from the firm Kabateck Brown Kellner read. The class action suit encompasses anyone in the U.S. who paid for pay-per-click advertising space on Citysearch, but the named plaintiff is Tom Lambotte, who purchased ad space on Citysearch and then claimed that the number of clicks on his ads rose suspiciously.
Representatives from IAC and Citysearch were not immediately available for comment.
According to the complaint, filed in a California court, Lambotte first purchased Citysearch ads in late 2007, didn't see a gain in traffic to his site, and attempted to cancel his ad account. The cancellation process dragged out, he said, and in the meantime his ad clicks started to escalate suspiciously. He speculated that click fraud--in which clicks to ads are meant only to drive up the rate the advertiser pays and not to purchase the product--was at play.
Claims in click fraud lawsuits are sometimes questionable, and Kabateck Brown Kellner has extensive experience in the field that could raise a red flag: the plaintiff-only firm has won against both Yahoo and Google, and attorney Brian Kabateck recently went after Google's AdWords advertising program, claiming that it deceived customers.
Consequently, a suit against yet another (smaller) player in the search market could come across as an attempt to just filch more cash from big dot-coms. Or, as the suit goes forward, Lambotte's claims, as represented by Kabateck, could show a legitimate foundation.
Search companies, meanwhile, announced a coalition against click fraud nearly two years ago in conjunction with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Media Rating Council.
This post was updated at 11:24 AM on Friday, Feb. 15 to clarify AOL's use of Citysearch ad listings.
InterActiveCorp chair Barry Diller recently went on the record saying that he wouldn't buy AOL unless somebody handed it to him for free. But that doesn't rule out content partnerships: AOL announced Thursday that it has formed a partnership with Citysearch, the IAC-owned business directory.
Citysearch content, including reviews, photos, editorial content, and videos, will be featured on a number of AOL sites like AOL CityGuide, AOL Local Search, and MapQuest. In return, AOL will display Citysearch's "paid listing" advertisements on those sites as well.
The deal comes at a rough time for the New York-headquartered parent companies as both attempt to invigorate their focus on ad revenues. The struggling AOL may be split into two businesses to separate its once-ubiquitous Internet access service from its ad-supported media properties. IAC, meanwhile, is spinning off its retail-oriented brands and keeping its digital media properties intact. Citysearch, along with properties like Ask.com, Evite, and Match.com, will be part of the "new IAC."
CitySearch is unveiling a newer, darker look this morning. Gone are the white and blue, which have been replaced by themed city pages, and a glassy, rounded look. The review and directory service has undergone some usability tweaks as well, including dropping the 1-to-10 rating scale in favor of a simpler five-star model and simplifying the look and feel of the home page.
CitySearch is also launching a new part of the site called My CitySearch, which keeps track of your recently searched-for establishments, and gives you recommendations based on your ratings.
The most exciting change to CitySearch's pages, however, is the inclusion of video content. Select listing pages will now feature a brief introductory video from business owners or employees. Each spot runs about a minute and is directed by TurnHere, the travel and hospitality Internet video production company. Several videos are also hosted by CitySearch's editors.
Currently, there are 700 videos in the top 10 cities, with more on the way later in the year. There's currently no way to upload your own video to the service, something that's being done fairly successfully over at MojoPages [review]. Instead, CitySearch is using videos as more of a general overview for local hot spots.
(Credit:
CitySearch)
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