Comments on: Community Powered Local Search – This Could Actually Work

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:40:00 +0000

There are so many local search sites its amazing. We’ve created what we feel is the next evolution of local search, “Local Suggestion”. Our site, http://www.thesuggestr.com , uses a collaborative filtering algorithm to predict how well users will like businesses they’ve never even been to. We also use our algorithm to build similarity ratings between users so you can quickly see which reviewers share your tastes.

By: When Local Search Goes Terribly Wrong | Noozeez

When Local Search Goes Terribly Wrong | Noozeez — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:20:44 +0000

[...] featured stories on local search before. Local Buzzer is similarly an up-and-coming local search site, but it provides a vastly more useful [...]

By: Max Metral

Max Metral — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:04:48 +0000

We’re taking a different but similar approach to the problem at povo.com (Boston/NY only at the moment). We take every block/park/street in the city and make a wiki page for it, including the knowledge of where it is in space. Each listing (can be a business or a park or a UPS drop box or whatever) can be tagged and also use “templates” (like wikipedia). You can then search by tags in an area. What’s more interesting, we hope, is that you can write your own search engines (Povo has a scripting language within the wiki markup). So on povo you can ask “where can I park for less than $15 for 2 hours near the zoo?” That entire “process” of data gathering and evolving search engine is user controlled.

Perhaps most importantly, the entire site is Creative Commons licensed. So if you want to build your own YP site, or your own “cheapest gas prices” site you can use Povo as the data and back end for it, and monetize it how you wish, so long as you give attribution.

Some links to illustrate the point:

Neighborhoods are important too:
http://boston.povo.com/Back%20Bay

Parking search:
http://boston.povo.com/Boston?search=&verb=search&search=&query=parking&tags=parking&text=&addr=Boston%3ABoston&radius=Boston&sortKey=&SearchTemplates=Parking_Garage&Parking_Garage.ParkingTime=90&Parking_Garage.MaximumParkingRate=15&x=70&y=14

A interactive “heatmap” of parking density in Boston:
http://boston.povo.com/Boston?heatmap&radius=Boston&query=parking&tags=parking

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 21 May 2008 00:33:25 +0000

I don’t understand how this is different from Yelp, except for being clumsier and lacking the ability to refine your searches by category or region…

By: SM

SM — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:34:33 +0000

Aww that sucks, this dosnt work for Ontario (Canada)

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:08:33 +0000

Yelp already does this, and I think they do it better.

By: Dave Jenkins

Dave Jenkins — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:17:57 +0000

Meh. The login has fundamental flaws (no check for duplicate accounts, poor password handling, etc). Moreover, the listings are not much smarter than CitySearch.

I dig that the concept of local search + community editing = goodness, but the execution here is lacking.

By: Tom Best

Tom Best — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:31:55 +0000

Fail. Site is SLOW

By: stationstops.com

stationstops.com — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:53:13 +0000

Isnt this the same as Yelp?

By: John

John — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:34:36 +0000

I tried it and it broke. A script error kept popping up and I had to “kill” it… and the results were pretty lame, especially since every point on the map was the exact same restaurant:

“Mi Pueblito”!!!

…

nice try. needs some major work.