EveryBlock – Database Driven Hyperlocal News January 30, 2008
In the past we have praised those like Adrian Holovaty who use databases for news reporting. Holovaty left his job at The Washington Post several months ago to work on a hyperlocal site called EveryBlock.
It launched several days ago with database driven hyperlocal news and information reporting for Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco. To report information about specific neighborhoods it culls data from other sources and presents it in a logical manner.
For instance, it pulls pictures from flickr with geographical tagging and groups them by neighborhood. Check out photos from Tribeca in New York. In addition to photos it pulls data from sites like Yelp for restaurant reviews and local government sites for restaurant violation information. Other information includes: crime reports, graffiti, lost and found listings, and news articles.
You can see a screen shot below of a business review from Yelp on a map in New York.
Also, for those who use craigslist to find those missed connections (someone whom you saw on the train and are attracted to but didn't have a chance to even talk to), EveryBlock even collects this data and presents it in list or map form.
The genius of the site is not that it collects this data, but it organizes it in a way that people should find useful. People can search for multiple items by neighborhood for all this information in one place instead of having to visit multiple sites. This is much more exciting and user friendly than your typical database.
