Map 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 (used 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.
EveryBlock gracefully pulls together local news, local events, crime reports, Craigslist personal connections, local photos from Flickr, business reviews from Yelp, city press releases, movie filming reports, liquor license reports, restaurant inspections, street closures and lost & found postings. The site offers a number of unique views of the data which includes charts and maps. EveryBlock is an excellent tool for anyone looking to find hyper-relevant location-based news. There is currently nothing on the Web like it.
I caught up with Adrian Holovaty at TECH cocktail Chicago 5 in July 2007 and we talked about EveryBlock when it was just a new project. He was just getting rolling on and I am happy to see it has launched - it looks super. Check out the Adrian Holovaty video interview (below).
Related EveryBlock stories include articles on TechCrunch, Signal vs. Noise, Gawker, Search Engine Land, Download Squad & Curbed.
