Webware

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.

Allvoices.com has launched a Credibility Meter across its citizen news service. According to the company, the Credibility Meter will be placed at the bottom of every news story to help readers determine the trustworthiness of a particular citizen journalist's postings on the site. The final determination of an author's credibility is based on how well the community likes content from the author, how well the community enjoys a particular report, how many contributors are writing on the same topic, and how many mainstream sources have supporting content about the report. The Credibility Meter is live now.

TripAdvisor launched a search engine Thursday night that will pull flight and fare data from multiple airlines and online travel agencies, the company announced. The search engine offers a fee estimator that will include the cost of checking bags, buying food in-flight, and more. The search engine is available now.

The O'Reilly community blog in Germany announced Friday that the Web 2.0 Expo in Europe, which is typically held in Berlin, Germany, each year, will not be held in 2009 due to poor worldwide economic conditions. The event's backers said that any of those companies that would still like to attend O'Reilly's Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco this year can enter to win a $1,000 travel fund by using the code websf09eu when they sign up for the event. The fund will give the winner three free nights in San Francisco during the Web 2.0 Expo.

Sears announced Thursday that it has launched an online marketplace designed for those who want improvements and repairs done in their home. Dubbed ServiceLive.com, the site aims at connecting Sears customers with local service providers and uses an auction system that lets those servicepeople bid to do the user's requested work. The original bid is set by the user and subsequent to that, companies will bid lower to get the person's business. The site is in beta and live now.

It's almost spring, which means it's time we all start planning our vacations for 2009. To do so, we need sites to help us research new places, decide where we want to go, and figure out what we can still afford.

I've picked five sites that try to do just that. Each site offers outstanding resources to help you find the right destination. And thanks to their user communities that often discuss affordability, you can make a better-informed decision about the price tag.

Driftr
Like other services in this roundup, Driftr relies on the intelligence of the traveling community to provide information about where to go around the world and how to get there. And although much of the information is useful, Driftr isn't a well-trafficked site, so you won't see as many reviews from tourists as you would on TripAdvisor.

Regardless, I liked Driftr's design because it makes researching areas around the globe quick and easy. Its home page features a clickable map that allows you to explore user reviews for places both at home and abroad. In fact, the vast majority of the world is covered by Driftr and almost any country will have at least one review.

At first glance, that's great. But once you start drilling down into the different countries, you quickly realize that the number of reviews for individual locations are generally few. In fact, when I searched for tourist reviews of Florence, Italy, the site only returned two. That's not enough to make a decision.

Aside from reviews, Driftr also allows you to upload photos and videos and discuss the best way to get around a particular city. All those features come in handy when people are actually employing them, but on some pages, only a few sentences were left to discuss the viability of going somewhere, which, once again, leaves little room for you to decide if you want to visit.

I like Driftr because of its potential, but right now, it's not an ideal site due to its sparse user support. As more people join the community, it may be a more worthwhile site, but until then, only use Driftr if you want to go to popular locations like New York City or Rome.

RealTravel
RealTravel is a well-designed site that, much like Driftr, uses the power of the community to deliver travel guides to those who want to learn more about a specific locale. And generally, it delivers a great experience.

The first thing that struck me about RealTravel was its friendly design. Unlike some sites, which feature too much information on the home page, RealTravel makes it easy to find what you're looking for as soon as possible. Want to go to Rome? It's right on the front page. How about Prague? Yep, it's there too. Simply put, finding frequented locations was quick and easy.

Once I started diving into the travel guides, I wasn't as impressed as I was with the site's design. Generally, the travel guides feature basic information you can find on any respective city's Web site. And like on Driftr, the community isn't active enough, yielding a site that's relatively light on solid details about a particular place.

That said, there are some city pages--Rome and Prague, for example--that offer outstanding information, since they're frequented by quite a few RealTravel's users. Those pages offer travel guides, flight guides, a look at where to eat, and more, which makes the site shine. But if you want to travel somewhere that's off the beaten path, don't waste your time with RealTravel. Its community and best content is focused on major locations.

TripAdvisor
There's quite a bit to like about TripAdvisor. Not only does it rely on its huge community to provide great research tools for tourists, it's the best site in this roundup.

TripAdvisor is designed relatively well, although its home page is a little cluttered. Once you get past the clutter, though, you quickly realize that TripAdvisor's destination pages make it easy to find information about a particular city, restaurant, hotel, or landmark. And since there are so many users, you won't have a shortage of good information to go around.

To evaluate TripAdvisor, I looked through its Cancun pages. I went to Cancun on my honeymoon in November and feel I have a solid understanding of the city, where to go, where to stay, and what to do there. TripAdvisor's Cancun pages, thanks to users, delivered the most informative reviews I saw on any of the travel sites.

That said, TripAdvisor's best features--its users--is also its biggest issue. Sometimes, especially with new hotels, TripAdvisor won't help you decide if you should book a room. Some patrons have a bad experience and blow it out of proportion. Others love it so much, they fail to mention that the rooms are smaller than they look in the pictures. On popular locations, that issue is easily fixed thanks to sheer volume, but in less-frequented locations where only a few reviews exist, you'll need to find outside evidence to make a judgment.

TripAdvisor is the most popular travel-research site and it's easily the best, thanks to an active community and extras like photos, videos, and partnerships with travel sites that make it easy to book a vacation. TripAdvisor is your ideal travel research site.

UpTake
UpTake is a unique travel search site because it requires two things from its users: that they travel in the United States and that they know what they want to do.

UpTake is designed well and it makes searching for locations quick and easy. In fact, it's the best-designed site in this roundup.

But when I started digging deeper into UpTake, I was a little disappointed by what I saw. Instead of a site that offers vacation information on destinations all over the world, you'll only find articles and reviews on places in the U.S. Worse, the individual listings were fraught with poor reviews and worse descriptions, making the site practically useless. That said, the sheer number of listings--UpTake returned 49,000 results for New York City--might make some want to use the site since there are so many more options than on competing services. But quality should trump quantity.

As much as I didn't like the listings pages, I like that UpTake allows you to search for places based on what you're trying to accomplish on your vacation. Whether you're looking for a romantic getaway to Hawaii or a fun-filled trip with the kids to Florida, the site will automatically find locations that satisfy that desire and allow you to compare your options. It's a simple feature, but one that I really enjoyed using and is easily UpTake's most redeeming quality.

Virtual Tourist
Virtual Tourist is a nice travel research site that cuts down on all the extras you might find in sites like TripAdvisor and keeps it to the basics: the best restaurants, the best hotels, and the best places to visit.

That sort of simplicity defines Virtual Tourist and also makes it a great choice for when you want to plan your next vacation. I searched for locations like Prague and Paris, and each time, it delivered a slew of great resources that I was able to read through and find detailed information on.

Much like the other sites in this roundup, you'll be forced to evaluate each Virtual Tourist review on a case-by-case basis. For example, one review of a hotel in Rome, Italy, features two reviewers. One claims the hotel is the "nicest hotel" the reviewer has ever seen, while the other says that the hotel "is inundated with vermin." Who should we believe? Once again, more input from third parties is needed to make that decision.

Regardless, Virtual Tourist makes it easy to find locations with the help of its "Tour Guides" section and generally, each of those pages are populated with outstanding information. It may not be TripAdvisor, since it has fewer listings and less users, but Virtual Tourist is a great alternative for those who want a different view on some of the finest locations around the world.

Responding to its users' desire for more restaurant review offerings, TripAdvisor announced Tuesday that throughout 2009, it will be adding features that will allow visitors to do more than review eateries on the site. So far, the site features 2 million reviews and ratings on 500,000 restaurants worldwide. To help users search through those more effectively, TripAdvisor added price, cuisine, and "recommended for" filters to its restaurant page Tuesday.

Also, the company has partnered with OpenTable.com to allow U.S. users to make a reservation directly on TripAdvisor's site. The company's new iPhone app, dubbed Local Picks, lets users find local restaurants and use the device's location-based technology to find restaurants nearby. More features will be announced later this year. Goodrec offers a similar service.

Online radio service Slacker Radio has launched five new stations in time for Valentine's Day. Its Broken Heart Radio station will feature "a melancholy mix of lost love and yearning with a touch of soulful redemption." Slow Jamz aims at getting you in the mood with songs from Marvin Gaye and others, while Rock Ballads Radio tries to bring you and your loved one back to the 1970s and 1980s. All of the company's Valentine's Day stations are live now.

XLR8 Mobile, a company that offers customizable widgets for sharing videos, music, and pictures across social networks, announced that it has changed its name to Dijit. The company's CEO, Eric Allen, claims the name change was the result of his company's "commitment" to developing new technology that allows users to share their original content and focus more on sharing. The company's new name was announced in conjunction with the release of a beta version of its widget platform.

Oodle, a network for online classifieds, announced Tuesday that it raised $5.6 million in funding from existing investors, Greylock Partners, JAFCO Ventures, and Redpoint Ventures. The company, which announced last year that it will power Facebook's Marketplace, will use the funding to form more partnerships. The Facebook Marketplace is scheduled to launch later this quarter.

Search marketing and analytic firm Enquisite, closed an $8 million round of financing that was led by Castile Ventures and Formative Ventures. According to the company, it plans to use the funding for product development and marketing efforts it hopes will expand its operation.

Soon you can brag about your travels to your fellow MySpace friends as well as your height, weight and looks.

Where I've Been aka WIB, an application for sharing a map on places you've visited, lived in or want to visit, will now be available for MySpace users, the company plans to announce Friday.

The mapping application allows users to color-code the world by where they have visited or lived and where they would like to go. The U.S. is broken out by states while the rest of the world is broken out by country.

The Chicago-based company originally designed the application for use with Facebook.

As of September 5, Where I've Been ranked as the second most popular travel application on Facebook with 130,858 daily active users. That's about 5 percent of the total Facebook users. Cities I've Visited, which is also part of TripAdvisor's new travel-oriented social-network, was ranked No. 1 with about 7 percent of Facebook's daily active users.

In early August there were rumors that TripAdvisor planned to buy the rival Facebook application for $3 million. Where I've Been creator Craig Ulliott has denied there is any truth to a TripAdvisor acquistion.

MySpace users can get the widget to add to their MySpace page from WhereIveBeen.com.

Where I've Been application as it appears on Facebook.

(Credit: Where I've Been)

This post has been updated to include the Facebook app creator's statement on the issue.

Ouch, here's a zinger: contrary to reports, travel site TripAdvisor apparently did not purchase the Facebook Platform application Where I've Been for $3 million. The news was originally reported on Inside Facebook on Thursday night.

A statement from a TripAdvisor representative read, "This is untrue. Beyond that, we do not have any comment."

The company isn't saying any more, obviously. You could really dig into the nuances of the statement, implying it to mean that either the entire rumor of the purchase is untrue, or just the price, or even just some of the details. However, we're going to assume that we should take this at face value and consider the entire acquisition to be an incorrect rumor.

UPDATE (1:53 p.m. PDT): Craig Ulliott, creator of the Where I've Been app, has confirmed that TripAdvisor has not acquired his creation. In a statement, he explained the situation: "There have been some rumors in the market that we have sold our business. These rumors are not true. Our future development plans, combined with our robust community of users, current growth rates, and the attractiveness of the travel vertical, have led to a number of strategic discussions with potential partners/acquirers, but we have not agreed to any deals and we are committed to building Where I've Been into a sustainable and profitable standalone business."

But, Ulliott added, we shouldn't wholly discount the possibility of an acquisition: "We are, however, exploring all avenues to maximize the value and usefulness of our product for our user base and we expect to announce new product features/enhancements," he explained, "from both internal development and through strategic business partnerships, in the weeks and months ahead."

TripAdvisor, that sea of au courant and sometimes complaint-driven posts about hotels, is making it easier to find like-minded travelers. The subsidiary of Expedia plans to roll out a social-networking component Friday that should help you avoid those less-than-helpful "no ice in the water" comments about foreign hotels.

While you may roll your eyes at the idea of yet another social-networking site, keep in mind that TripAdvisor, which claims 10 million unique users, has cultural custom on its side.

(Credit: TripAdvisor)

For example, calling a person four degrees removed for advice on where to stay in Uppsala or asking for a dinner invitation when visiting someone's home city of Novosibirsk, is already socially accepted behavior for travelers.

TripAdvisor has made it painless to register your network of travelers, the point at which many sites often lose people. It imports contacts from Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, MSN, Outlook and Outlook Express. Check off who you want to invite, and who you don't want to bother asking, but who you will preaccept if they invite you. Click Submit and you're done.

You can view your friends' networks and invite their friends to join. And here's where TripAdvisor can't lose when it comes to building community. Why wouldn't you just invite everyone on everyone's list? You're only sharing travel advice and chances are you'll have more in common with someone you tangentially know than a random poster.

Reviews from travelers within your network float above the general population whenever you do a site search. You can also view their reviews, photos and lists of favorites and exchange messages from one central location. You can also view their maps.

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