There’s a new web site launched this week, EveryBlock, that aggregates together all of the “news” and makes it available on a very geographically-specific basis — that is, specifically for your block. They launched covering only three cities, but San Francisco is one of them.
Want crime reports for your neighborhood? Got ’em. Want restaurant inspection reports? Got ’em. Want reviews of local establishments on Yelp? Got ’em. They compile standard news outlets, public records, other local sites, and even geo-tagged Flickr photos.
Go to the site, type in your street address, and then spend the next hour (or more) browsing the different pieces of information available. This is seriously interesting. I think in the long run it’ll be as influential as craigslist.
(I have no affiliation with EveryBlock, I just figure that everyone has an interest in what’s happening in their neighborhood, and this looks like a compelling way to find out.)
@Paul: Ummm. I think you missed the point of the post, which was not to review the site at all, but simply to provide a pointer to an exciting new service. It would take far too many words to describe what a person can learn in 5 clicks and 2 minutes on EveryBlock, i.e., from using it themselves. I only wanted to suggest people check it out.
Perhaps you’ve heard of link blogs? There’s a lot of them out there, and while I don’t claim to have a prominent one, the best ones are outstanding. Worth checking out, they’ve been emerging on the Internet for a few years now…
Um.. what a shallow review. Have you even had any extensive use of EveryBlock? I think if you used it more, you’d learn about more features and you could actually give your readers something useful to read. Next time, do some more research.