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Hyperlocal News Source EveryBlock Relaunches As Community Site

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EveryBlock, a hyperlocal news site acquired by msnbc.com in August 2009, unveiled a new version Monday designed to encourage conversation and collaboration among neighbors.

"We're shifting from a one-way newsfeed to more of a community-empowered website," says EveryBlock founder Adrian Holovaty. "Instead of going to the site to passively consume information, we're going to offer a platform for posting messages to your neighbors, to discover who lives near you."

In addition to the neighborhood-specific news, business reviews, crime reports and real estate listings the site delivered previously, a slew of new features encourages users to share and discuss local news, meet one another and coordinate neighborhood activities. Users will be able to create profiles, post about events and other topics of interest, as well as find neighbors who "follow" the same places to connect with those with similar tastes. (Soon, Holovaty says, the site hopes to integrate Foursquare's API, but for now it will show neighbors who follow the same places on EveryBlock.)



“The web doesn’t yet offer an easy and effective way for people to post messages to their neighbors,” Holovaty explains. “Other social media tools are focused on people you already know — professional colleagues, friends, family. But how many people become Facebook friends with their neighbors?" he asks, noting that EveryBlock is in a great position to do so because it "already ha[s] an audience of people who are using [the] service to follow news in very specific geographic areas."

The site's most active and helpful users will be rewarded with Neighborhood Honors for their contributions. EveryBlock's community manager, Becca Martin, will supervise their selection, whilst connecting with existing neighborhood organizations and encouraging "positive community behaviors," such as thanking participants for posts, on the site.

"The new EveryBlock isn’t just about reading what’s happening in your neighborhood. It’s about getting to know the residents in your community and turning discussions into real-world actions to make your block a better place,” Martin says.

As for revenue, EveryBlock has partnered with Groupon to display nearby deals, of which the MSNBC-owned property will take a cut, and will be running Google ads on its site. "We're working on building the audience before unveiling our revenue model," Holovaty says.

EveryBlock is currently available in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

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