As newly registered user i only wanted to say hello to everyone else who uses this site B-)

I’ve got a couple of businesses I could add to Gmaps

thanks

Good description of the problem and some of the solutions being pursued.

What I really want is a personalized recommendation engine approach - as in I like these restaurants in Edmonton, what other restaurants might I be interested in. And for bonus points: when I travel to Denver what restaurants might I want to consider there?

The Netflix Prize has driven a lot of research in to collaborative filtering techniques. I’m surprised that nobody has yet attempted to apply this to the local information. Part of the challenge is in getting enough input from many users to build a profile — but once you get to a critical mass you’d also have a huge network effect.

Cheers,
Eric

Harry

I agree that there is “something about walkable communities” - I personally live in one. However, I think you underestimate the suburban neighborhood resident’s desire for “event” content - think of the life systems of school, sports, garage sales as leading examples. The pull towards community pride/issues is often strong in suburban communities.

Unrelated, I am equally interested in a person’s SET of preferred or active neighborhoods as being a key piece of the local search and social feed landscape. I personally live in two places, shop in another place or two, and dine in any of 4-5 neighborhoods. I also have a few favorite neighborhoods in places i travel to routinely, and have sentimental attachments to a couple of places I used to live. All of those define information consumption patterns of interest.

This space has multiple dimensions and will evolve in many ways. We’re just getting started… Thx for the insightful perspective.

It would seem that the Facebook app is going to gear toward the “walkable” neighborhoods where events are actually occurring (as opposed to “pizza at the pool” in a suburb). I would expect that I would sign up for a neighborhood other than my own to find out about those events and businesses in those neighborhoods. Even then, I find myself more loyal to businesses (and the people who run them) than an actual location. Suburbs might end up being limited to schools, community pools and smaller churches.

Taking my car, another mile or so isn’t going to make a difference as to where I shop or eat where that difference is significant if I’m on foot. A shared location (a pub, a park, a street of restaurants surrounded by residential) seems to create community loyalty.

I’m surprised more developers don’t push business/residential communities more. Those neighborhoods always seem to be a premium despite the size of the actual housing. Yet developers doggedly keep building suburban enclaves.

I’d be curious to hear a report on how your app works differently in different types of neighborhoods. I’d venture to guess that you’ll see more “walkable” neighborhoods participating in the app and neighborhoods being more like “categories” than actual gathering destinations or events.

Thanks for pointing this out.

This can also be seen as an opportunity to get lost cost pay-per-click advertising for all those brand new hyper-local websites like us :-)

Pierre-Antoine