Yes, but EveryBlock was up to speed and pretty widely used (as far as I can tell) before it was shut down. Whether the people that were on there return remains to be seen.
Comcast acquired NBC recently, and with that came NBC's assets, one of which was EveryBlock (which NBC had only recently acquired and then shuttered).
Comcast brought it back -- not under NBC anymore, but under Comcast proper. The big question is why? What is their monetization strategy? As a Chicago resident and past EveryBlock user, I'm very curious about this. My first guess is that Comcast appreciates being able to correlate an email address with a neighborhood, for marketing opportunities.
The hard part about a site like this is getting me to keep logging in.
Turns out my block club in Chicago has a very active Facebook group, so very local news gets integrated into my feed already.
My other source of "extremely local news" is a blog called Uptown Update [1]. If these sites had a way to attract and fund local bloggers, they would have more staying power.
Some of the people at Comcast involved with relaunching Everyblock are speaking at the OpenGovChicago meetup tonight. I think there will be a live stream for anyone who is interested but can't go to the meetup.
During the previous incarnation of EveryBlock, there were persistent rumors that posts embarrassing to the City of Chicago government (like about crime in high tourist areas) would mysteriously disappear. I'm curious how transparent the new incarnation will be.
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[ 7.0 ms ] story [ 65.0 ms ] threadComcast brought it back -- not under NBC anymore, but under Comcast proper. The big question is why? What is their monetization strategy? As a Chicago resident and past EveryBlock user, I'm very curious about this. My first guess is that Comcast appreciates being able to correlate an email address with a neighborhood, for marketing opportunities.
Turns out my block club in Chicago has a very active Facebook group, so very local news gets integrated into my feed already.
My other source of "extremely local news" is a blog called Uptown Update [1]. If these sites had a way to attract and fund local bloggers, they would have more staying power.
[1] http://www.uptownupdate.com/
Typing this from a mac right now.
Well... ok. I was even going to advertise it a little, but I guess I'm not cool enough.
http://www.meetup.com/OpenGovChicago/events/160401092/