Everyblock... creepy cool

Everyblock is basically geography based reporting. Described like this:

The easiest way to keep track of what’s happening on your block, in your neighborhood and all over your city — like restaurant inspections in Chinatown, crimes in the Loop or everything around 475 Kent Ave.

I messed around with it and found it eerily entrancing. It's all the great pseudo-stalker-y things that make the internet fun... Like that feeling when you first joined The Facebook and got to check everyone out. This is like that, but more real and intimate.

You get to check out all the forms of public information that you would never check - or even know existed. From restaurant inspections, to building violations, noise complaints, arrests... and that's just the background of the tapestry.

You also get the mentions in the news, the photos from flickr, and juiciest of all... the missed connections on craigslist.

From all of this, you get the sense of what's going on in people's homes. What's going on out on the street. Where you definitely need to stop eating. It's all there.

It's fascinating, but maybe not endlessly... I worry that it could fall the way of The Facebook. That after a few aggressive bouts of geo-stalking, and neighbrowsing, I might have enough.

There are probably practical reasons that this type of data bundling will be really valuable - like for realtors or people thinking of moving in. It could even be a great way to check out what's going on this weekend if I feel like going out... but not too far... if I went out...