Monday's news that MSNBC acquired EveryBlock, a "hyperlocal" news service just a few months after AOL acquired a competing service, Patch, had me thinking about all the start-ups that are vying for your attention by targeting your neighborhood. Of course, many of these sites don't work with every neighborhood, so your mileage will vary.
Regardless, I thought that with the EveryBlock acquisition, it was time to take a look at those services providing a hyperlocal experience.
Go hyper
EveryBlock EveryBlock, which was just acquired by MSNBC, features some outstanding hyperlocal features. The site provides local news, crime reports, and other information at the block level.
Currently, EveryBlock works with a handful of cities, including New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Miami. It would have been nice to find information on more areas around the U.S., but it wasn't so bad. The site does a great job of finding local information, including lost and found lists, building permits, and other information that might be useful to someone living in a particular location. EveryBlock is a great site. I just wish it supported more cities. (Click here for our full review of EveryBlock.)
EveryBlock helps you find out what's going on in many streets in the area.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)Outside.in Outside.in is one of the nicest resources in this roundup. It finds out what's happening in (at last count) 35,312 neighborhoods around the U.S. and delivers it to people in those areas.
When you first get to the site, Outside.in asks you to input a ZIP code. From there, it finds local news, discussions (it has a message board for each neighborhood), and establishments for you to check out. I was happy to see that both small suburbs and major metro areas were included in the list of neighborhoods on Outside.in. And since all of the information is constantly updated, it was a great way to find out what's going in my area.
Outside.in provides with all the news in your area.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)
MSNBC Interactive News, a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC Universal, announced Monday that it has acquired EveryBlock, a start-up that provides hyperlocal news down to the block level. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
EveryBlock received its funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. It also won that organization's Knight News Challenge, which awards start-ups that have the most innovative media ideas. When it won that award in 2007, the Knight Foundation required EveryBlock to make its code freely available to the public. Its code is available now on the company's site. MSNBC didn't say if it plans to remove the code or keep the site open source.
MSNBC said in a statement that EveryBlock will stay an independent brand with its own site. The company also said it plans to use its "resources to turn EveryBlock from a cool, useful service into something much bigger." MSNBC didn't elaborate on what it has planned.
EveryBlock's service allows users to input their address or ZIP code to see local news coverage, blog entries, and other information. It might have caught MSNBC's attention after AOL announced earlier this year that it had acquired a competing service, Patch.com. Both sites provide hyperlocal news that they gather from the local community. It's a cost-effective approach with a good chance of generating a positive return.
So far, EveryBlock is available to residents living in Atlanta, Boston, New York, San Francisco, and a handful of other major metro areas. MSNBC didn't say if it plans to expand its coverage, but if I had to guess, I'd say there's a good chance of that happening.
I've covered a few interesting sites that collate information that people living in neighborhoods could use (see reviews of Zillow Community Pages and StreetAdvisor). None of them, so far, has replaced for me my local neighborhood paper (The Noe Valley Voice). The paper, of course, is limited. It's old news, it's not social, and it's not interactive. But it is relevant.
The new Everyblock does a really good job of collecting neighborhood information from existing sources. It does not appear that its founders are trying to create a new Yelp or a new Craigslist. Instead, smartly, EveryBlock grabs data from sites like those and puts it all in front of you, filtered by location. Put in your address, or neighborhood, and you'll see a useful list of things that might matter to you: building permits recently issued nearby, crime reports, lost and found, recent restaurant reviews, and other useful tidbits. You can also search for items, like "school board Richmond district."
What's up near me? Handy.
Unlike real estate sites, which also have some of this data, EveryBlock is clearly designed for residents, not buyers. That makes the site feel a lot more like the aforementioned local newspaper, and a lot less like those glossy real estate catalogs you pick up when you're in the market to buy.
I like that EveryBlock is not trying to beat users over the head with its own social networking functions, although I could see the site adding neighborhood networks, perhaps using Ning or another off-the-shelf tool.
One small criticism: Neighborhood borders seem a bit off in some cases. It's a tough problem to solve, since different people in a city will define neighborhoods differently from each other. The small company Urban Mapping has some interesting work in this space.
EveryBlock is live now for Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. If you live in one of those burgs, it's definitely worth checking out.
See also: Backfence, Fatdoor, Outside.in, and YourStreet.
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