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.
Fatdoor is an upcoming social network that's all about location. Instead of creating your network of friends based on interests or real-life relationships, the creators of Fatdoor want you to use the service to get a better feel for your neighborhood and what's going on around you.
The system works by slurping in local business and residential listings, and placing them on a Microsoft Virtual Earth map. While the businesses get pinpoint-accuracy, residential listings are clumped together in a general area, until users decide to claim the house or building as their own. Each user gets their own profile where they can list their interests, both generally and with regard to things in and around the neighborhood.
One of the key uses of Fatdoor is interacting with local businesses. The service aggregates reviews of local establishments from several services, including Yelp, so you can browse through reviews and leave your own. Here's where things get a little tricky--users of these other sites won't be able to see your comments. In fact, only other Fatdoor users will be able to see your take. The system works a little bit like coComment, which Webware reviewed last month.
In addition to restaurant reviews, Fatdoor has built in its own services, like an events planner, local interest groups, and driving directions. Some of the services, like the local events listings, are aggregated from third-party services, but the rest are built in-house and fed by Fatdoor members.
To keep track of all this activity, Fatdoor's welcome page has a series of activity feeds on it, listing the most recent groups and events. It feels a little bit like Facebook, albeit a little less comprehensive. Users also get their own wall to put up notices, called "shout outs," which can double as discussion threads.
Short of block parties--and friendly knocks to tell people to turn down their subwoofers--it's definitely not easy to meet your neighbors. Fatdoor is a very ambitious service that's trying to solve that, albeit using the Internet. Creator Raj Abhyanker explained to me that he knows the barrier to entry is high, since users need to be real people with a real address, but he thinks they can gain a lot more out of a social network if it's local and "face to face." The service is still a couple of months from making its launch; look for it near the end of summer.
With Fatdoor you can see who your neighbors are and interact with them using several social networking tools.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
An interesting new community site launched this morning. And by community, I mean real community: the street you live on. StreetAdvisor is a place to rate your block and meet your neighbors.
The rating system lets you review your street on five main scales (vibe, wired, health, value, essentials), each of which has subscores (for example, the wired scale includes a cellular coverage score). That's a lot of ratings to give, but you can, if you want, just give the main overview scores.
You can also upload video tours of your street, which could be a great resource for people looking to move on to a particular street. It's usefulness, however, depends on people reviewing and rating their streets honestly. It also assumes that real estate pros don't try to game the system by artificially inflating streets on which they have houses for sale (or dragging down scores on streets where they don't). The co-founders told me that have measures in place are in place to help prevent that.
StreetAdvisor reviews page.
(Credit: CNET Networks)For residents of a particular street, the system's "StreetBoard" also serves as a local resource. It's a social network with an open message board ("StreetShout") for street-related discussion with your neighbors. It also has a wiki-like element: You can find the numbers of local services (police, doctors, post offices) or enter them yourself for others to see.
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