March 26, 2008
Finding the best place to eat, get a haircut or buy groceries in your local neighborhood can sometimes be a daunting task using the Web. While there are some sites like Yelp that lend a helping hand they don't cover everything you might be looking for and they certainly do not have all of your friends recommendations.
Loladax, a Washington, DC based startup, which just officially launched today is looking to offer prioritized search based on recommendations on Facebook friends. Loladex, founded by Laurence Hooper and Dan Goodman both formerly of AOL, is looking to offer true word of mouth by creating a compelling local search engine experience for just about anything in your area.
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February 14, 2008
AOL has announced a strategic content and advertising partnership with CitySearch an IAC owned company. The agreement enables AOL CityGuide, AOL Local Search and MapQuest leverage CitySearch's local content and in return CitySearch gains access to AOL's distribution. CitySearch CEO, Jay Herratti had this to say:
"This partnership is a classic ‘win-win’ for both companies; Citysearch’s content is great for AOL’s audience, AOL’s reach is great for Citysearch’s advertisers who will gain access to qualified local customers and the ability to deliver a consistent message across the web, and both companies will benefit from incremental revenue."
Sounds like a simple enough deal to me. AOL will help get more ad units in front of Citysearch users and CitySearch will provide its local city reviews and information to AOL - makes sense.
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February 10, 2008
Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending February 10, 2008.
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February 1, 2008
Mapping mashups have become almost a dime a dozen these days as the release of open APIs by just about every major online mapping site and and development tools has lowered the barriers of entry. That was not always the case though and as recently as 2005 trailblazing mashup like HousingMaps.com (a cross between Google Maps and Craigslist housing listings) and ChicagoCrime.org (a crossed Google Maps and Chicago Crime data to display crimes on a map) developers actually had to reverse engineer JavaScript code to create mashup. This all changed with the release of Google Maps API and most of the major mapping sites on the Web have since followed suit.
It was recently announced that due to some server issues and overlaps with another new mashup the 2005 Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism award winning early mashup ChicagoCrime.org will be redirect to - EveryBlock. EveryBlock, launched recently, is also mashup of sorts created by Chicago-based Adrian Holovaty the developer that produced ChicagoCrime.org. Everyblock is a news aggregator site for Chicago, New York and San Francisco that looks to help you answer the question:
“What’s happening in my neighborhood?”
The site compiles all the openly available public records and then slices and dices them so that they are easily accessible by zip code, address or neighborhood.
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January 16, 2008
Are you twiisting up in southern California tonight? Unfortunately, I was not able to get out to southern California like I was for Twiistup 1. But I just got a chance to video chat over BlogTV with Mike Macadaan who is hosting his third Twiistup event in Venice, California tonight at the Air Conditioned Supper Club. The event will feature 9 showoff companies and an appearance by celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton.
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September 27, 2007
Mixx launched last week to offer up a social news site for the mainstream to explore. Founded by Chris McGill, Mixx aims to offer a place for large publishing companies to get into the social media space.
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September 7, 2007
TECH cocktail Boston took place last night in the shadow of Fenway Park and brought the Boston tech scene together. With about 400 people in attendance, TECH cocktail Boston brought together a number of startups, entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts for an evening of food, drinks and passionate conversations. It was pretty wicked!
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September 5, 2007
Grayboxx, a Silicon Valley-based local search startup, has been in stealth mode for quite sometime but recently surfaced by kicking off a tour of United States cities last week in Burlington, Vermont. Grayboxx bases its local search results on recommendations of neighbors coupled with some snazzy algorithms to assess user behavior.
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August 31, 2007
Even with a drawer full of take-out menus finding places to order food can sometimes be a tough task. GrubHub.com, a Chicago-based food delivery and menu startup, looks to help you find a place to order food and has been making some moves to improve. Placing over $1M in delivery orders per month in Chicago and have now focused their efforts on expansion.
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August 29, 2007
Text2Store, a Chicago-based startup, leverages text messaging to send deals and coupons directly to your cellphone. Text2Store recently launched local deals widget that shares the revenue of each click-through. Similar to other advertising and affiliate programs, anytime you help someone save money with a coupon text message accessed from your site, Text2Store will pay you 25% of the negotiated income with the advertiser.
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August 22, 2007
Planypus (planyp.us), a startup co-located in Chicago and Washington, DC, offers friends and family the ability to create collaborative plans. Think of it as a wiki for your social life. Today Playnpus has announced the closing of its Series-A financing. What are they going to do with the money?
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August 14, 2007
MetroProper, a Chicago-based startup founded by Philip Tadros, will soon be launching into the public beta, after an extended private beta period which started in July 2006. MetroProper is a social network for business or personal profiles with citizen journalism in cities around the world.
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July 24, 2007
Uncover offers a community-powered site for local venues and people. Recently released into public beta by three twenty-somethings, Spencer Fry, Jason Nelson and Dave Gorum, aim to deliver a social network for people looking to go out and meet people at night. Similar to Digg or other community powered sites...
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July 13, 2007
Last night I was in Chicago with Eric Olson co-hosting TECH cocktail Chicago 5 for an estimated six hundred guests at John Barleycorn near Wrigley Field. Eric and I co-founded TECH cocktail just a year ago looking to help foster a tighter and more amplified technology signal and community in...
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June 12, 2007
Have you ever looked around your place and noticed you tend to save things, lots of things, that you no longer need, want or care about? If so, you might want to sell something on Ztail, an eBay compatible Alpha application. Through a partnership with Compete.com, Ztail surveyed 2,500 registered...
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May 18, 2007
A few hours ago, TECH cocktail completed its first event in DC at the popular MCCXXIII bar (1223 Club DC, for the non Roman-numeral types). The event was packed with hundreds of guests mingling as the place rocked to music, wine, product demos and mingling. Over 225+ technology enthusiasts, VCs,...
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April 13, 2007
With April flurries plaguing the Midwest the past few days, TECH cocktail 4 offered the Chicago technology and entrepreneurial community a place to get out of the cold spring weather to enjoy an evening of fun. With a number of activities and another excellent turnout which included an appearance by...
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April 5, 2007
Looking to play a team sport like baseball or football but unable to field a full team? You are not alone. With Sportsvite you may be able to scream - GAME ON! Sportsvite, a New York and Northern Virginia based startup, offers a place on the web to organize active...
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April 2, 2007
Topix, a local news aggregator, has launched a substantial redesign and domain change (from Topix.net to Topix.com). The new design also offers an updated citizen journalistic direction which empowers users to be the editors of the news site. This is the second redesign in the last two years for Topix....
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March 19, 2007
I know it is just the start of a new week but if you are looking to ease into it with a happy hour, you might want to check out Unthirsty. Unthirsty is a local happy hour search engine and directory. Unthirsty's mission is simply to connect users with the...
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March 18, 2007
Photo of the Week: This is a photo I took in my old neighborhood in Lincoln Park in Chicago prior to moving on to AOL in Virginia. Happy St. Patrick's Day! Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 03.18.07 Viacom Drops a $1 Billion Nuke on Google Remember when Napster was a lawsuit...
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February 5, 2007
Gasoline prices in the United States have been creeping up for a number years now. With little doubt that the prices will ever be under a dollar again, hybrid vehicles have become increasingly popular, with the Toyota Prius being a leading vehicle sold in the United States. If buying a...
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January 1, 2007
Finding a parking spot can be a major drag. You can circle an area and minutes can easily turn into hours as you look for an open crevice to park your set of wheels. Wouldn't it be great if you could find out about potential parking spots before you leave...
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October 27, 2006
Freshwater Venture is an effort devoted to restating the rich Chicago entrepreneurial history by profiling the startups that have been developed in the Chicagoland area. Freshwater Venture was created by Keith Schacht and Eric Antonow as they looked to raise the profile of entrepreneurs and their ventures in Chicagoland. The...
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October 24, 2006
Google has launched a custom search engine today (October 24, 2006) called Google Co-op. Co-op enables a user to create and launch a customized search engine which includes just a few specific websites. This should make for an interesting competition between a crowd of other products which includes Rollyo, Eurekster...
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October 13, 2006
Last night (October 12, 2006), Eric Olson and I hosted our second TECH cocktail in Chicago at the Gramercy. As we first envisioned nearly 8 months ago, TECH cocktail 2 brought together the technology enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, bloggers, podcasters and corporate masterminds in the area. With the list of rsvp'ed guests...
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September 10, 2006
Listing my Chicago condo for sale last week coincided with a Classified Intelligence report (sorry no direct link available) which examined the latest marketing and advertising patterns of real estate agents. The report concluded many interesting trends about Realtors. Most notably the report showed a reduction of print ad spending...
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August 15, 2006
Sam Sebastian, director of Classifieds & Local at Google, spoke at a lunch engagement today (August 15, 2006) at his former employer Classified Ventures in Chicago, Illinois. Sam heads a sales team that focuses on developing working relationships with real estate companies and other local advertisers to advocate the use...
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August 12, 2006
Have you ever had to meet a group of people at a restaurant or bar only to find out upon arriving that the place is packed and you and your group needs to plan on heading elsewhere? As a result you may have to make several individual phone calls or...
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August 4, 2006
Flickr may be offering a new geotagging feature soon which could allow users to be tagged based on geography. This feature is said to combine mapping with the drag and drop of photos which could help to combine Yahoo Local and Flickr. There is a screen shot here. I am...
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July 19, 2006
Google continued to make proximity a priority today (July 18, 2006) as it has added map images within search results. When searching on Google for certain keywords or search terms you will find that the first result returned will display local results with map images which are associates to the...
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June 25, 2006
Ning, the online application development toolkit, according to a recent TechCrunch report has made: "...a significant change to their application interface on Friday, removing the mandatory sidebar on applications and replacing it with a fully customizable javascript bar across the top of the page." As creator of the Team Sports...
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June 7, 2006
Topix.net, a news aggregator service owned by three large, traditional media companies, has added the ability to post free classified ads on its site. Topix offers a free alternative to both print and online classified newspaper sites, which have been banking on paid classified ads for years. Another direct competitor...
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June 1, 2006
Taking a page out of the book of Steve Jobs, Motorola will open a retail store in its hometown of Chicago along the magnificent mile of Michigan Avenue. The new store called Apple Store Destination Q and is supposed to open soon (June 8, 2006) in the former home of...
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April 17, 2006
TechCrunch recently published a comparison piece titled, Comparing the Mapping Services which explores the online mapping landscape. The field of online mapping services has grown and competition it heating up but this post should help you sort through all the noise to find a clearer signal. We looked into the...
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April 7, 2006
Honda is going to start adding Google Earth to its navigation system to cars in Japan. This should allow users to see satellite images integrated into their car navigation system as they drive. However, Honda is not the only one interested in Google Earth. Volkswagen has also been working with...
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March 5, 2006
iBegin.com, the user-powered local search engine, has officially launched. I had the pleasure of checking out the beta this week and found it to be put together well and with its users as a top priority. iBegin now open to the public in Toronto with plans of rolling out to...
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March 1, 2006
Have you checked out the new MSN Live.com Street-side Drive-by local mapping beta yet? If not, I would highly recommend you check it out by visiting: http://preview.local.live.com. Just as the name might imply you can explore the city from the street level in a sports car, race car or by...
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February 7, 2006
I recently created a new site called TeamSportsBars.com using the Ning platform. The site was a result of a Thanksgiving break lunch conversation between my family and some out of town visitors (which happened to be my girlfriend's family). This question came up: "Where can you watch and cheer for...
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November 14, 2005
The Tribune has launched a new "edgy" national entertainment site under the Metromix brand. Metromix is a well known Chicago entertainment website brand but now its going "national" with local flavor and a sharper edge and voice with the launch of site for Baltimore and Orlando site. I was fortunate...
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October 27, 2005
Congratulations to the Chicago White Sox for bringing the World Series and a World Championship back to Chicago! I am a Chicago Cubs fan but I love baseball and the Houston/Sox series was great for the game. I have to tip my cap to extraordinary effort this season by both...
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October 6, 2005
I was not able to attend the Web 2.0 Conference due to scheduling conflicts and my proximity from San Francisco. However, I have been monitoring the new companies that have been taking center stage. I just read LifeHacker’s highlight list and Zvents caught my eye, so I did some extended...
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October 5, 2005
Yahoo continues its focus on beefing up its local community content and coverage by acquiring Upcoming.org an event planning site. This acquisition should give Yahoo more local event content information. Upcoming.org is an LA-based company that depends on user generated local event content. So users can post free listings about...
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September 5, 2005
Google Maps is now offering not only the usual satellite images but now they are offering updated images of New Orleans. If you view a Google Map of New Orleans you will see a red Katrina button in the top right corner of the map. It allows you to toggle...
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August 29, 2005
Jack Johnson performed at the Northerly Island Pavilion on a beautiful Sunday evening (August 28th) in Chicago, Illinois. He sounded great in performing his mellow surfer inspired tunes. I really like the pavilion on Lake Michigan however I wish the pavilion staff had left the main floor folding chairs instead...
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August 7, 2005
While many of the website search engines are offering local search component it was only a matter of time till the idea spilled over to blog search engines. I recently stumbled upon Blogdigger's local blog search beta which allows you to search for other blog posts that are in specific...
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