Getting local, getting small: Two sites doing the small-and-local thing well
First off I’m giving a shout-out to Foamee, the site that helps you keep track of beers that you owe people. It’s not grand, it’s not big, it’s not going to change the world — it’s just small and it’s fun.
There are two sites worth thinking about that do local and do small well: SignalMap and CleanScores.
SignalMap maps out the cell phone reception strength of the major providers. “Find user-generated cell phone signals by major service providers. Find dead spots, and compare signal strengths,” the site says. It relies on people to add the data that it maps out, which is a pretty easy action for anyone with a cell phone to perform.
CleanScores charts restaurant health-inspection scores over time for restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles (they say they’re coming soon to every metropolitan market). Inspection scores is a simple, concrete, uncomplicated chunk of information. It’s also a useful hook for anyone that goes out to eat. That data would be a great beginner-database / community service project for any local news website…
(Hat tips to Adam Howell and Infothetics for the pointers)
February 28th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
[…] Last November I mentioned Foamee, the ‘Twitter Piggyback’ web site / service that allows you to keep track of beers you owe people. […]