EveryBlock launched this week in Chicago, plus New York and San Francisco. The site “filters an assortment of local news by location so you can keep track of what’s happening on your block, in your neighborhood and all over your city,” according to the site.

Here’s an excerpt from the site’s launch announcement:

“’What's happening in my neighborhood?’

“For a long time, that's been a tough question to answer. In dense, bustling cities like Chicago, New York and San Francisco, the number of daily media reports, government proceedings and local Internet conversations is staggering. Every day, a wealth of local information is created -- officials inspect restaurants, journalists cover fires and Web users post photographs -- but who has time to sort through all of that?

“Our mission at EveryBlock is to solve that problem. We aim to collect all of the news and civic goings-on that have happened recently in your city, and make it simple for you to keep track of news in particular areas. We're a geographic filter -- a "news feed" for your neighborhood, or, yes, even your block.”

But instead of just doing a Google maps mash-up with local news stories from mainstream media outlets or user-contributed content, the EveryBlock team has gone into government databases (think real estate, building permits, crime, restaurant inspections, etc.) and Flickr photos, “missed connections” from craigslist, reviews from Yelp and more. And, of course, they have more to come.

I searched around my old stomping grounds in Chicago (zip code 60616, near the intersection of 18^th and Indiana Ave. just south of downtown). When I expected a map to come up after clicking ‘search’, I got a list – a really long, but very easily readable list – that included one restaurant inspection, 17 recent crimes, four business licenses, seven business reviews (all of these had addresses, by the way). Plus, the page included listings for similar categories from yesterday and several days past. Some days had listings of Flickr photos and news articles, too.  

Clicking on a crime item led to a page with a map (of course) and details about the incident. Clicking on the news article led to a page with a map, a summary of the story and a link to the story on the original Web site (probably a key negotiating component for EveryBlock). You can also click on the date to get back to all the EveryBlock content from that day, click on the map to find more stuff and more.

Though the list format seems to be the default choice when you search on a zip code or address, the easily accessible map tab brings you to a map with dots – click on a dot to find out more, and click on the categories on the left to switch what’s shown on the map.

This is more powerful than other map-based journalistic applications I’ve seen because of the number of layers here – it’s more than just news and Google ads like YourStreet; it goes far beyond crime (one of Adrian’s earlier projects was ChicagoCrime.org, and several newspapers have done similar projects); it does more than reviews. But even with all the layers, the navigation makes the information manageable and interesting. This site is capital-I impressive.  I’m a huge believer in the journalistic power of databases (thanks to some influential thinking from Rob Curley, Levi Chronister and Rich Gordon), and this is a great demonstration of that.

Holovaty, who worked on this project thanks to a Knight News Challenge grant, is the subject of a Poynter.org Al’s Morning Meeting today.  (The interview is a quick-read.)  

It’s not entirely unrealistic (ok, perhaps aside from expenses…) for a dedicated group of developers and journalists to build this for their own news site – the relationships with the local government should already be in place, and there are a ton of business opportunities here: advertisers can purchase dots, for example, that link to coupons.

I got to work with Adrian Holovaty and a little bit with Wilson Miner in Lawrence, Kan. several years ago – they’re both unbelievably smart and truly nice people. I don’t know Paul Smith and Daniel X. O’Neil, but if they hang with Adrian and Wilson, they must be really talented and cool people, too.  Congratulations to all of them on the launch.