StreetAdvisor is a new entry in the plethora of rating services popping up all over the internet. Some ask us to rate what we buy, the places we go, and even each other. This Australian startup applies ratings to your neighborhood.
StreetAdvisor is a search engine for neighborhood reviews. Reviews are broken down by street and composed of narrative, video, and ratings based on 22 factors of appeal (reminds me of eHarmony). The factors are mashed into an overall score and also broken into five star ratings across 5 categories: vibe, wired (communications connectivity), health (environmental quality), value, and essentials (utilities and services). You can search for neighborhood ratings by search box, or browsing a Google map with push pins marking the different reviews. Browsing the map lets you choose which of the 22 factors are most important to you by slider bar, with more relevant reviews having larger pin heads.
The site also incorporates some community features for added stickiness: a “guidebook” and “streetboard”. The guidebook serves as a place to write generic posts that didn’t fit into the 22 factor review. The streetboard is a communal board that serves as a place to converse with your neighbors through topic threads or general “shouts” to the crowd. The two features are a start, but not near the depth of community discussion you can get from an Outside.in or Smalltown.
I can understand the need for these neighborhood ratings, startups like Zillow and Trulia have done a good job of monetizing the quality of a neighborhood, but are relatively poor at capturing the intangibles. However, I don’t understand how they will motivate enough users to participate and make the service really useful. Neighborhood ratings don’t strike me as something a broad audience is particularly passionate about and rely on only a small pool of contributors for each review. Qualified neighborhood reviewers don’t reside all over the city like Yelp’s army of restaurateurs, but are instead a small group of people that live on the street in question. Reaching at least one person on each street across the 26 countries they cover and motivating them to review their block is a daunting task indeed.
I have to agree with Nick Gonzalez. It is a daunting task indeed. Best of luck to Streetadvisor, it is very huge and brave job they have taken upon themselves.
I’m not much in to picket fence gossiping on the other hand it might help improve some neighbourhoods around the world.
What an honour. I was the first to review a street in Denmark!
Pilevej, Fredericia
Breaking in all streets? Whew talk about hard.
It seems like a very interesting service, although I question it’s ability to catch on long term.
Also, I tried signing up about twenty minutes ago and still have not received my confirmation email (checked the spam box too!), so I’m growing impatient. Too bad, because I really want to review some of the streets I’ve lived on.
To Stephen: It took around 25-30 mins. before I got the confirmation mail. So check again in maybe 10 mins.
I was about to give up too. Amazing how fast we grow impatient nowadays
nice idea, not sure if I’ll use it, but I’ll say this - absolutely top-notch interface.
Hi guys,
Thanks for the article Nick. A lot of work has gone into StreetAdvisor over the past 6 months, and what we have achieved in that time we are extremely proud of.
We understand the enormous challenge of getting a lot of content. Like any site in the beginning it takes time to build a solid database of information, especially when dealing with UGC. But we do have a lot planned over the next 12-24 months to generate this UGC, so stay tuned.
We feel if every street in the world was reviewed and rated, wouldn’t that be a hugely useful resource to have FREELY available? I understand that it’s going to be an enormous challenge, but I also think that’s all the more reason to do it. No one said it would be easy, but I think the end result will be well worth it…for everyone.
Keep the feedback and comments coming guys!
Adam Spencer
StreetAdvisor CEO
Reminds me a bit of a “Web 2.0ified” version of Brittish neighbourhood-site UpMyStreet, which has been a useful resource in the UK for some time.
I did get my confirmation email, and a very speedy, personal response from Adam Spencer. Awesome customer support initially. Goods!
The product has a very slick and inviting interface. Should be interesting to watch.
This is probably one of the most simple but practical web service I have seen this month. I am sure they will do very well. Good luck, guys!
I love this idea. Get information from your neighbors without having to go visit each of them. Find out about a neighborhood before moving in or visiting.
OK. Very smart move guys. I see two great business models here.
1-THis is the real Location based advertising machine. How much better could it be than advertising to someone looking for infos on the street where your business resides.
2- This comes back to vuloo.com project street-level-Google-earth. If users are willing to take pictures (by phone automatically uploaded to the page or digicam) of the street, then thoses pictures could be assemble and eventually be used to provide a visual element along with the 22 factor review.
Work with real estate companies to get/give reviews of street and local businesses. Maybe provide each one some free advertising for a little while if they decide to upload content.
Good Luck.
I’ll tell you, and neighborhood that is ‘passionate’ about rating itself on a website is a huge red flag, so this may be an inadvertently great service. Most people generally enjoy a quiet neghborhood to be left alone I would think, not gossips with too much time on their hands.
Sounds like a great idea - if their were a myspace widget … it might explode.
- Thinking
“Rb lives in a 97.5% Great neighborhood ” - click to find out how you neighborhood stacks up
Stephen: No worries on the support. We’ve all been there when other websites support just isn’t up to scratch, and it can be quite frustrating. It’s the least we can do for the early adopters.
Dennis: First review in Denmark? CONGRATS! Thanks for getting the ball rolling. Very much appreciated.
Yongfook: Thanks for the comments on the UI. We’ve got a very talented design team in here, and ill be sure to pass on the compliments.
Vic and Lin: It’s great to see people understanding our vision for StreetAdvisor. Thanks so much for your support.
Ely: I’d love to tell everyone exactly what out business model plans are for the future, but of course it’s all under tight wraps at the moment. Needless to say you have some great ideas there
Thanks again everyone!!
Adam Spencer
StreetAdvisor CEO
As a new home buyer, I would absolutely love to access a resource like this. As a home seller, I’d want to get in there and put in a review for my neighborhood to paint it in the best possible light.
I’d love to see some integration with something like Zillow too. When it comes to real estate, I think buyers and sellers still have to rely too much on real estate agents, and they have a definite vested interest that might not match our own.
http://averageidea.com
I think thats a nice start. I would say however, it is pretty much the same as http://www.Grapheety.com but not as mature.
Think Grapheety “Painting your spot on the street”
Plus their search ability on the newest release is incredible.
When mixing local content, with international content. Also photos, comments, ratings, you can get a better feel for an area. And monetization is simple. When you have a travel related service, you can provide travel affiliate programs which have an eRPM much higher. Also, as data fills up, location-based ads become much more worthwhile.
-Gavin P. Quinn
Very nice looking site. Love the map mashup and interface.
Everything we do, whether it is blogging, or photo sharing is giving a shout out to the people we know, but pretty much only in the here and now.
The really great thing about StreetAdvisor is that the material users submit will stay relevant for much longer than say a restaurant review. If I’m moving to James Ave in Redwood City, looking back at the history of the street will be incredibly valuable to me. In that sense, it is reminds me of our own project Nearbie at http://www.nearbie.com
Still, the primo “street site” so far has to be the UK’s http://www.upmystreet.com - it ain’t pretty, but it’s very useful
I think they will need to pay reviewers, as well as ensure anonymity. Like you said, I doubt there is going to be heavy interest in this - except perhaps amongst those trying to sell a house. If the site becomes a center for buyers, it could become “worthwhile” (in an unethical sense) to boost up one’s streets ratings.
Great site guys.. but I found there to be too many bugs.
Adam: It was my pleasure. I’ve mentioned this in my blog together with this review.
Hopefully some more Danes will drop by.
Are you considering translating it into different languages?