StreetAdvisor Blog

StreetAdvisor launches “What the Locals Think” widget.

Over the past 12 months we’ve had many real estate professionals wanting to add StreetAdvisor’s reviews and ranking data on their own websites. We'll now you can!

The “What the Locals Think” widget adds value to your web site in so many ways!

1. Show-off interesting hyperlocal review and rating data about your neighborhood, city or town.
2. Engage your site visitors – people can write and read local reviews.
3. Adds credibility to your Local Expert status in your neighborhood.
4. It's free! 

Get the widget now at www.streetadvisor.com/widgets

   

Great Hyperlocal content for your blog - you can use the "What The Locals Think" widget in so many ways and in a variety of custom sizes.

Add a Neighborhood guide to your sidebar:

 Add Street Level reviews and ratings to your property listing pages:

Need some more inspiration? Here's some websites with the widget in action:

www.bostonconnect.com
www.rsbapts.com
www.getproperty.com

Need assistance getting the "What The Locals Think" widget on your site? 

We've made it real simple to add the widget yourself from www.streetadvisor.com/widget but if you need any further assistance getting started, email us at support@streetadvisor.com, we're happy to guide you through the process.

StreetAdvisor sponsors Inman Connect New York City 2010 conference

StreetAdvisor was proud to yet again be a Silver Sponsor of the Inman Connect conference in New York City, Jan 13-15 2010. 

This is the third year we have been a sponsor and our most successful conference to date. In addition to personally meeting over 500 people from within the US Real Estate market, we were extremely delighted with the response to our latest offerings including the "What the Locals Think" widget and upcoming API.

 

And as usual, our giveaways were extremely popular with a Macbook Pro and High definition video cameras up for grabs. 

This years winners were:

1. Brian Muench - President, BrianDavid Realtors (Macbook Pro winner)

 

2. Ray Schmitz from Corcoran Real Estate (Flip HD Cam Winner)

3. Silvio Bercovici from Prudential - Douglas Elliman Real Estate (Flip HD Cam Winner) 

 

4. Ruth Bader - Vice President, Prudential - Douglas Elliman Real Estate (Flip HD Cam winner)

Thanks to all for visiting us at Inman Connect, the real estate community has been incredibly supportive of StreetAdvisor and we are looking forward to seeing you all in San Francisco in August for Inman Connect SF 2010.

Jason Spencer

Co-Founder & Co-CEO StreetAdvisor.com

StreetAdvisor joins forces with realestate.com.au to bring you local voices!

We are very excited to announce that StreetAdvisor.com.au and Australia’s biggest real estate website, realestate.com.au, have partnered to launch a new community known as local voices.

Throughout Australia, StreetAdvisor will be rebranded as local voices becoming an integral part of the realestate.com.au website.

Whether you’re looking to buy or rent StreetAdvisor’s patented technology enables you to see how the locals rate the streets and suburbs that you are looking at, helping you find the perfect place to live.

So come in, get the inside word and share your views on your suburb by visiting realestate.com.au local voices - we want to hear your voice.

What does this mean for StreetAdvisor members?

Other than a new name, the main difference is more people to share and connect with! You will now be able to share your street reviews, photos, discussions and lists with over 5 million people that visit realestate.com.au every month. Your account and profile details are unchanged and the site will continue to be free.

Our goal has always been to help people learn more about their communities while helping others make better decisions about where they want to live. This partnership with realestate.com.au and the launch of local voices gives everyone a much greater opportunity to participate.

See you on local voices!

StreetView is now available in StreetAdvisor Canada

Google has just added StreetView to it's maps for Canada, and StreetAdvisor has added into its new improved scorecards. It's available now for Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Halifax, Calgary, Vancouver and nearby suburbs, with more areas to come soon. You can see how it looks in these two example StreetAdvisor scorecards.

Acadia Drive SE E Calgary, Calgary, Alberta (Street Rank in Calgary #3, Overall Score 80 / 100).

The Esplanade N, Pickering, Ontario (Street Rank in Pickering #1, Overall Score 59 / 100).

Browsing the Canadian StreetAdvisor site has become a lot more enjoyable. Come and see what your streets look like at StreetAdvisor.ca today.

StreetAdvisor introduces QuickRate - a new fast way to add reviews

If you're browsing through StreetAdvisor looking at streets in your neighborhood or city, and want to contribute, you have many options. You can write a review, or comment on an existing review. You can also write a guide or or post a topic to the forums. But if you don't have much to say, then it can be difficult to know where to start.

To make it easier to express a simple favorable or unfavorable opion about a street, neighborhood or city, StreetAdvisor has built a new kind of review - QuickRate. A QuickRate review allows StreetAdvisor community members to give a place a 1 to 5 star rating. It's a quick and simple way to add your opinion to StreetAdvisor.

To see it in action, we'll visit the Forest Glen neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois (Neighborhood Rank in Chicago #3, Overall Score 84 / 100). The scorecard shows the star rating of the neighborhood in the top left corner.

If you use the mouse to hover over the star rating, a pop-up appears that allows you to complete a QuickRate review or a traditional complete review. To complete a QuickRate review, click on the empty stars to set your rating.

Release the mouse over your preferred score and the QuickRate review is complete! It could not be more simple.

 

If you want to you can fill out some more information to write a complete review. It's up to you. QuickRate allows StreetAdvisor users to share more opinions about their favorite places. Try it for yourself today on StreetAdvisor.com.

The best neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay area

Streeteadvisor has been focusing on the San Francisco Bay area in July. We've already asked what do you love about your San Francisco Bay area neighborhood? With numerous reviews coming in, there are many great stories being told and local information being shared. Here are some more great reviews of neighborhoods in San Francisco Bay area.

At Westlake, Daly City, California (Neighborhood Rank in Daly City #1, Overall Score 84.39), STuschman says:

Westlake is one of the best areas to live in Daly City. It has everything to offer - it is close to many great parks, several golf courses, Lake Merced, and the beach (Thornton State Beach, a public access area), so there are countless opportunities to take advantage of the great weather here and take part in a wide array of outdoor recreational activities. This neighborhood is established and fairly upscale, but not at all pretentious. The school districts for this neighborhood are great, and you are also conveniently located to the 280 Freeway and the BART station for commuters. It is a very quiet, safe, and desirable area to live in Daly City.

At Temescal, Oakland, California (Neighborhood Rank in Oakland #10, Overall Score 66.20), andrewlglass says:

Temescal used didn't use to be the greatest neighborhood. It didn't really have very convenient streets to get places and the shopping wasn't that good. BUT, with the addition of the freeway and people FINALLY coming back to the neighborhood, it's getting better. New shops and places to eat are coming in and its finally getting to be quite a nice place to live. Traffic can be busy at times but that happens everywhere. Temescal has a lot of potential to become a hotspot for new home buyers. If they keep doing exactly what they're doing now, in a few years this WILL be the place to live.

At Downtown San Jose, San Jose, California (Neighborhood Rank in San Jose #7, Overall Score 68.60), Shinebox says:

I took my family to the tech museum of innovation in Downtown San Jose last winter to see a special exhibit of machines built after Da Vinci's designs. The exhibit was absolutely fascinating. The rest of the museum was most excellent, full of hands-on exhibits to keep the kids busy. There is also an imax theater there as well. We were also blown away at how clean the downtown area was. At the time, there was also a large Christmas tree in the center square in front of the museum. There was also a merry go-around at that time as well as a manger scene. It was as festive and Christmassy as a CA town is going to get. There were lots of shops and restaurants in the area as well.

At Bronze Coast, Alameda, California (Neighborhood Rank in Alameda #8, Overall Score 68.15), Headbonk says:

The Bronze Coast neighborhood of Alameda, San Jose Ave is a pretty community close to lots of great amenities. Not as pricey as the Gold Coast down the street, this neighborhood has an affordable mix of gorgeous old victorians and more affordable appartment living. A 10 minute walk to the increasingly happening Park St. commercial district for restaurants, bars, and the new movie theater. Closer are shops at Chestnut and Ensenal including a neighborhood market, dry cleaner, coffee shop and breakfast joint. San Jose Ave also has easy access to Franklin Park which features a playground, tennis courts, picnic tables, baseball diamond, and a community swimming pool. Great place to raise kids or settle down.

Some of these neighborhoods don't have the highest scores, but community members are finding plenty of good things about them and are keen to share their inside knowledge with you.

Why not return the favor and share some of your local knowledge with the StreetAdvisor community? Log in today to write a review of a street, neighborhood or city or post a forum topic.

The StreetAdvisor guide to the neighborhoods of Los Angeles

Los Angeles (City Rank in California #63, Overall Score 62.02) is an amazing city, or rather a collection of cities in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area.

Los Angeles is receiving lots of street and neighborhood reviews in StreetAdvisor, and the scores and ranks for the neighborhoods are filling out. These are the top five neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

The top neighborhood is Beverly Crest, Los Angeles, California (Neighborhood Rank in Los Angeles #1, Overall Score 81.87).

The second is Rancho Park, Los Angeles, California (Neighborhood Rank in Los Angeles #2, Overall Score 78.91).

Third is Century City, Los Angeles, California (Neighborhood Rank in Los Angeles #3, Overall Score 78.70).

Forth is Elysian Park, Los Angeles, California (Neighborhood Rank in Los Angeles #4, Overall Score 76.50).

Fifth is Sawtelle, Los Angeles, California (Neighborhood Rank in Los Angeles #5, Overall Score 75.15).

If living in LA proper is not your scene, perhaps you prefer somewhere by the water or in the suburbs. The rankings of the cities in the LA area vary considerably.

Pasadena, California (City Rank in California #4, Overall Score 84.32) ranks much better than most LA neighborhoods. Glendale, California (City Rank in California #23, Overall Score 75.86) also ranks well and so does Santa Monica, California (City Rank in California #34,Overall Score 73.36).

What do you think of these rankings? Where does your neighborhood rate? Log in to StreetAdvisor.com today to find out!

The StreetAdvisor guide to Manhattan neighborhoods

With so many streets in New York City already reviewed by StreetAdvisor community members, it is not surprising to discover that almost all of the 43 neighborhoods in Manhattan not only have a score but also a rank.

In fact, even most of the smaller neighborhoods already have both a score and a rank. For example, look at the Meatpacking District, New York, New York (Neighborhood Rank in New York #1, Overall Score 87.75).

The scores and ranks for Manhattan neighborhoods continue to rise and fall as new street and neighborhood reviews are submitted. Here’s sample of some recent developments.

Larger neighborhoods like Chelsea, New York, New York (Neighborhood Rank in New York #21, Overall Score 67.28) feature many street and neighborhood reviews.

Kips Bay, New York, New York (Neighborhood Rank in New York #18 Overall Score 68.32) is rising in the rankings and Midtown, New York, New York (Neighborhood Rank in New York #5, Overall Score 77.94) scores highly.

The most northern neighborhood in Manhattan, Inwood, New York, New York, has the lowest score and rank (Neighborhood Rank in New York #42, Overall Score 38.09).

The Upper East Side, New York, New York (Neighborhood Rank in New York #12 Overall Score 74.07) scores slightly better than the Upper West Side, New York, New York (Neighborhood Rank in New York #15 Overall Score 70.77).

If you think the score or rank for a street or neighborhood is not accurate, write a review and explain why. Give your review a more realistic score.

To make it easy to find all the neighborhoods, we've made a complete list of Manhattan neighborhoods using StreetAdvisor's new Local Lists feature.

You get to influence the score and rank of every street and neighborhood by sharing your opinions about places on StreetAdvisor. Log in to StreetAdvisor.com today and start finding out more about your favorite places.

Vote for StreetAdvisor in the 2009 Webware 100 Awards

StreetAdvisor.com has been selected as one of the finalists in the 2009 Webware 100 Awards in the new location-based services category.

300 finalists were selected by the Webware editors from more than 5,000 qualifying Web 2.0 services nominated by Webware readers and company representatives. 

Voting for the Webware 100 is open now and closes on April 30. We’d like you to vote for us!

Follow this link to vote for StreetAdvisor in the 2009 Webware 100 Awards.

StreetView is live on StreetAdvisor in the UK

StreetAdvisor has added Google's StreetView to its UK site StreetAdvisor.co.uk. You can now see what the streets of London really look like, such as here at Shoreditch High Street, Hackney, Greater London (Street Rank in Hackney #1, Overall Score 90.00).

Visitor ajr67 has this to say about Shoreditch High Street:

Depending on what magazines you read, Shoreditch has been one of the major centres of young London in recent years and there is no doubt that it’s become one of the major bohemian hangouts in London in the past five years.

For more great local reviews and opinions, visit StreetAdvisor.co.uk today and add your local knowledge to the growing StreetAdvisor community.