My city.ru - a social network in an urban environment

In December, the Internet resource " My Cities " opens. The first mention of it could be found in add. material for the 5th International Conference PHP Conf. But now - his really first performance.

“My Cities” is a social network of Russian cities. In it, users get into the Internet analogue of an ordinary urban environment. It is formed by:

• directory of Russian companies with reviews of residents;
• city ​​posters with the ability to add events by users;
• ads;
• inquiries about cities, government structures and places of interest;
• territorial and thematic communities;
• services that can be provided using google maps.

All this is in about a thousand cities of Russia, that is, even in those where these cards are not.

Take as a simple example the geo-service “Who is near? What's next? ". A certain distance is set on the map, which numerically expresses the notion of “near”. Depending on your current location, people near you are displayed on the map.
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The “what’s next?” Service is also simple, displaying information about the location of companies and events that take place nearby. For example, a person, having rented an apartment in a new district, can immediately clearly get information about the nearest stores or service points.



Already this winter, we plan to combine both of these simple services to get unique opportunities. Finding out who among the users next to me wrote a review about a restaurant next to me, you can make friends by interests. Having found out who of those who are nearby wants to play football and volleyball, you can assemble teams from neighbors.

In general, for a site that you have not yet seen, it is possible to discuss, with equal rights, both implemented functions and those that are still expected. I will use this circumstance to discuss with the community the general idea of ​​the project on the example of its “yellow pages”.

“My Cities” is a site that allows users to write and rate reviews of local firms. People generally believe that for restaurants, beauty salons, lawyers, doctors, recommendations of their friends and even strangers is a weighty argument for choosing. But “My Cities” has the same problem as all similar sites in the West: despite the fact that there are hundreds of reviews in the blogosphere, “My Cities” are asking people to create content specifically for them. And until the proposed ways to collect feedback from the entire network.

But in its current form, the service "My Cities" can help businesses. Users, as potential buyers and consumers of services, will always be aware of where the company is located, what it does, what other users write about it. “My cities” is a good way to promote your business, focusing on the target audience.

However, how to attract a lot of company owners to the site? How to verify the authenticity of ownership of the company (and this is really a problem)?
Should there be an extended toolkit for business owners? (That is, exceeding the possibilities of quick update of the company data and accounting of visitors who viewed this particular information).
I would like to hear your opinion.