CHICAGO, Jan. 7, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, EveryBlock announced the launch of Notify Your Neighbors, a new service that allows people to share updates of what's happening in their neighborhoods and on their blocks. The new service is available on everyblock.com and as an application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The free app -- available now on the Apple App Store -- enables consumers to send and receive updates from any location.
EveryBlock is a ground-breaking site that has pioneered the local news space by offering news feeds down to the neighborhood block level. The site allows users in 15 cities to track news near any address, neighborhood or ZIP code to view nearby news coverage, blog entries, civic data, photos and dozens of other types of information -- updated throughout the day. With the launch of Notify Your Neighbors, city residents themselves can now participate in EveryBlock's updates by sharing their own local news.
Some ways people can use this feature are to post an announcement to their neighborhood, share an eyewitness news report, start a discussion about a neighborhood-focused issue or let neighbors know about a missing pet or garage sale. As soon as the announcement is posted, it gets published to all nearby EveryBlock users, who can then post comments or follow up questions about it.
The service is now available in each EveryBlock city: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
"It's like an old-school discussion board, combined with our sophisticated geographic focus," said EveryBlock founder Adrian Holovaty. "What's cool here isn't just that we're opening up to let anybody post, but the way we funnel each message to the appropriate blocks and neighborhoods."
Users can visit www.everyblock.com or download the app (http://www.everyblock.com/about/iphone/) to join the discussion of what's happening in their neighborhoods.
About EveryBlock
EveryBlock is an innovative local site with a twist: it offers news down to the block level. EveryBlock, founded in 2007, was awarded a grant from The Knight Foundation for its unique development of platforms, tools and services to inform and transform community news. Acquired by msnbc.com in August 2009, the team is based in Chicago and offers a news feed for every city block in 15 cities.