Ever wanted to see where your city’s highest concentration of frisky, mature Cougars was located? How about a list of locations in town that offer free meals when it’s your birthday? Two ex-Googlers have quietly launched a site called TownMe that’s looking to answer these questions and more. In fact, the site is aiming to become a comprehensive guide to pretty much everything that’s relevant at the local level, from restaurant reviews to the best schools and hospitals in town.
Co-founder Elad Gil says that TownMe is still in “very, very early stages”, so there are still many features to come, but the core of the site seems to be in place, with local reviews and guides available for plenty of restaurants and events like San Francisco’s street fairs. The variety of topics covered is fairly broad, though at there are still a modest number of reviews.
While Gil ackowledges that there are other major sites like Yelp in this space, he points out some key differences. The site aggregates data from across the web, and also accepts user-submitted content. But instead of presenting a list of reviews submitted by individual users, the site is using a group-edited Wiki system, with a lengthy overview describing a certain establishment (there are still shorter, Yelp-style reviews with a star rating and comments beneath the Wiki). Gil says that the site also has a broader focus, and looks to offer entries that are more detailed than a Yelp review. For example, he points out that if you were to look up “Golden Gate Bridge” on Yelp, you’d be hard pressed to find a listing of the best locations to shoot a photo from or which landmarks to look out for.
The site also leverages an array of publicly available information like census data and hospital ratings. For example, there are options to see a map with an overlay of the highest concentration of ‘Yuppies’ (young professionals who make $100,000 or more) or ‘Cougars’ (defined by the site as women aged 35-50 who are single or divorced). Obviously some of these are mostly for fun, but they can definitely come in handy, especially when you’re trying to price out different neighborhoods.
The Wiki system is working pretty well so far, but I’m worried about some of the problems that will arise as more people use the site. For one, most people don’t always agree on which restaurants or events are really ‘must-see’, which means that entries might skew towards being overly vague instead of singling out spots to eat. And if TownMe does begin to start gaining substantial traction, it would be trivial for restaurant owners to simply add their establishments to the page, which sort of defeats the point. That said, the site is still in early stages, and has plenty of time to fine tune its moderation systems.
All in all, TownMe is off to a great start, but it’s going to have a long road ahead of it: there are already some big players in the space, namely Yelp, which has become an excellent resource for getting reviews on local restaraurants and activities. Aside from Yelp, TownMe is going to see competition from a number of other sites, including Diddit, WikiTravel, and even MySpace, which launched MySpace Local in April.
TownMe was founded by Elad Gil, a former PM at Google who worked on AdSense and Google Mobile; and Othman Laraki, a Google PM who ran Google Toolbar and Gears.
It’s quite a great idea.
And I think there will be more geo based app to come.
More competition for Yelp! I think there are lots of opportunities for communities tailored for local taste. Also, I have yet to see some new killer idea, or innovation in this space. Let’s see what happens next
- Darren at AdExcel dot Com
I looked up my town, Boulder, Colorado. I clicked on the ‘Restaurants’ category and the first restaurant listed, Tom’s Tavern, is a place that has been closed for over a year.
I know they recognize they are still in an early stage and not all info will be accurate, but this just makes me wonder how fresh their data really is.
This is an interesting concept, and not to be confused with Yellow page business listings.
For that, Just search restaurants at AAfter search , and then click on the yellow page. All your local restaurants are there.
I don’t need help finding restaurant info, reviews, etc. There’s plenty of places, mostly Yelp and a few good iPhone apps.
My point is that their database doesn’t seem very current from the get-go. It’s obvious that if they recently launched, the data is coming from somewhere and isn’t very accurate.
Boulder does not have five zoos. We don’t even have one. Our local Museum of Contemporary Art is not a zoo. Where are they getting this stuff?
Also, why was there such a prominent display of local statistics. If I want to use this as a local guide (restaurants, events, attractions, etc.), I don’t really care that Boulder is number 9 of Colorado’s largest cities. This was displayed larger above local listings. I want local happenings, not census stats.
I guess I don’t understand if this is for locals or visitors. It feels like a travel guide site but seems to be claiming otherwise.
I wonder does it work with the new Firefox’s geo locating function?
Why is it that ppl that used to work @ Google are always starting up their own startups? lol
That is what I was just about to say! It seems that every second startup is founded by ex-Googlers nowadays.
Are there really that many of them?
So basically it’s a site for free-loaders.
Always great to see another perspective on local search. I will be interested to see how they tackle the bigger problem of local monetization
I checked out the site and in my opinion it’s too techy….I mean can our parents figure out how to use this? Where’s the sexy visuals?
I just don’t get it, why are so many travel guide start ups recycling data (aka site aggregates data)?
Man….wish I was an ex-Googler, maybe then someone would notice Tripulu.com lol When I was younger I worked at Subway, guess it doesn’t sound as sexy eh.
PS. I love San Fran….wish Montreal could as pro entrepreneur as you guys out West.
The only good thing outa canada lately is the removal of transfat from the Poutin Fries!
lol there’s nothing like a good poutine after a hard night of drinking!
Obviously look to get bought by AOL
Bravo Elad!
Haha… this is very cool! It’s kind of like a travel guide but it has a different feel to it. I’ve never really seen anything like it.
very slow site
Right now the lag reminds me of the early days of Friendster.
I like the aesthetic design. Very clean and simple. But, I don’t get what’s so special about it. The stats seem overkill, and not sure that Wiki and reviews mix.
Very cool. Would be even better with real-time data from an app like Citysense.
Cool …
Most people will never take the time to use the features/functionality. For some crowds it works but not mainstream users. We at Missouri.me created community portals for every town in Missouri. We found the only way to get people generating content was by giving access to community leaders. As much as I hate to say it we had to get the engineer/cool techie/early adopter mindset out of the way and focus on what small communities really wanted.
How will they make money?
I wonder is this another free and fancy business directory? We ask because it does look like it, as well as lucrative
That logo is confusing, I thought the domain was town.me.
Agreed. I actually went there and got a domain auction site. townme.com is the currently available URL and actually their logo is townme. on that site.
Many sites have been coming around that are similar to this. We have launched our beta site recently as well: http://www.townsync.com. It has a similar concept to “Your town, online.”
I like the idea. Right now when I’m looking to go out and try something new I check Yelp. I like how they have an aggregated review from averages taken from 3rd party sites. I feel that it adds a bit more objectivity. Enjoyed the article. Great work.
I use the Dallas Observer for that purpose. But this could work on a bigger scale with sharing of info between cities for traveling like a local.
now this is a really good idea for a change!
This is a solid team tackling a large market opportunity. They are just scratching the surface.
It seems pretty mediocre to me.
oh yeah – when was the last time you launched something?
Nice Idea. Good job
I agree with Mich, the website does seem mediocre. I spent no more than 5 seconds on the website when I looked at it. People need to start coming out with more original ideas.
I think that Townme is a superb idea. It has a great and very successful future. It is a fantastic idea that people will write about their own community. It is a pride and a joy. Thank you to Mr Gil for his genius ideas.
Best in the business
Does anyone know how their “Web Wide Rating” is being calculated?
“Ever wanted to see where your city’s highest concentration of frisky, mature Cougars was located?”
Hell No!!!