Criticism of EveryBlock.com

Due to the boom of hyper-local media, more and more interest is being given to projects like EveryBlock.com . It is interesting to note that the project itself does not consider itself to be hyper-local . Their position is approximately as follows: We do not limit the scope of coverage, we simply filter the collected data well. But is filtering so good?

Last week, this project bought MSNBC Interactive. Everyblock.com works in 15 US cities, aggregating information from the US district "ZHEKov", "MUMRov", rescue and emergency services, municipal authorities, registration chambers, local media, blogs, etc. Nearest competitors: Outside.in , Topix . The journalist from paidcontent tested the service and this is what he brought out.

1. There are problems with coverage. Many events are skipped. Even what gets into the news feed is often incomplete, fragmentary, does not provide comprehensive information.
2. The collected information is not properly split. For example, the results of local elections crushed only to the level of districts, but not to the level of polling stations.
3. Messages from the authorities and emergency services lack context. Often occurs, for example: “Calling an alarm. Check out the dress 25 at 8:56, 23 Aug at 1728 E. Madison district. ”Or:“ A plan was adopted to use a piece of land of such and such, ”and it is not reported what this plan is.

It should be noted that the project developers themselves state that the site in its current form is only 5% of what is intended. Nevertheless, it becomes clear that it is impossible to do quality content with content without local representatives. In its current form, this variant of hyper-local media is only useful as an addition to the local media or blog, where there is a normal human content processing.