I looked at EveryBlock tonight, it was just written up by TechCrunch in EveryBlock Launches as Local News Aggregator for SF, NYC, and Chicago; and since I live in NYC, I was able to try it out with a search of my own neighboorhood in Brooklyn - to see how accurate it might be (or how many health violations I might find on local restaurants / felons arrested in my police precinct, etc).
Well…I think the information provided is a step forward in that it collects local building permits, food inspection reports, reported crimes and real estate listings per zip code and nearby areas - but it feels like I'm just looking at one level of information and not the whole ecosystem.
For example, were there any meetups or events happening in the area, open Google calendar entries, I think that would be valuable, as well as any other type of events, movie listings, etc.
In other words, just getting one layer of information, while very useful, is not very compelling as a place I want to look at frequently - I might look at it from time to time - just to see what restaurants had vermin attacks - but do I really want to look at this kind of information that often? I think not - unless they want to add a bit more art and entertainment to it - as well as events and gatherings happening in the near future.
That's another thing that could be added - Going.com's recommendation and event engine - for example. There's a lot of events listed at Going.com - that can be geo-targeted and if your own account could be linked to events going on near you - possibly, profiles of people nearby you (or in your zip code) going to events your interested in, could be added.
I think the potential is there, the framework, to build a very interesting product/platform -but it hasn't been realized yet.
