EveryScape Expands Community Strategy

I just wrote about Smalltown turning its Webcards into website substitutes. Mapping site and virtual world EveryScape is seeking, in a way, to do the same thing with its local business profiles. CEO Jim Schoonmaker told me that is how its profiles can be used and are being used by some small businesses. These are visually rich, potential alternatives to conventional websites:

Alternatively, the company’s technology can be embedded or incorporated into existing websites (e.g., hotels). Competing with the more well-heeled, Google and Microsoft, EveryScape is trying, in its own words, to be “the real world, online.” And today it’s announcing a range of upgrades and new capabilities:

The key new features include:

• Scape Memo. A new community feature called “Scape Memo” lets people create a private link on EveryScape.com with up to 200 “memos” that identify their favorite locations to share with friends. For example, you could create a link pinpointing your 30 favorite restaurants nationwide, or you could send your friend a link with a memo identifying a new dinner location. Scape Memos are private and are shared via email. In addition, users can embed any memo within their favorite social network such as Facebook or LinkedIn.
• One-click Meta Search. EveryScape.com brings together all of the information from across the Web about a particular destination. With one click, you experience what it’s like to be there, read reviews from Yelp, see photos from Flickr, watch videos from YouTube and search the Web with Yahoo!.
• Better Local Search. EveryScape.com also features an improved navigation bar with more categories and subcategories designed to simplify local search. A new “What’s Nearby?” feature gives visitors one-click access to other businesses close to their chosen destination.
• World Tags. EveryScape also lets businesses upload photos, videos, links and more. For example, a restaurant could upload a video interview with its chef, or a women’s boutique might want to upload photos of its latest line.

The company is also announcing what it’s calling EveryScape Ambassadors. This is part of its attempt to leverage the community to grow the site, its content and ad revenues. Ambassadors replace the former “scape artists.” There are two types of “ambassadors”:

• Destination Ambassadors are EveryScape’s contracted representatives for specific destinations. They are responsible for capturing all of the public content for a given territory. Depending on the breadth of the destination, this represents a sizable yet flexible time commitment. Destination Ambassadors are required to attend a training and certification program through EveryScape.
• Local Business Ambassadors are “assignment photographers” who help us capture interior images of local businesses that are looking to build their presence on EveryScape.com. This opportunity is ideal for amateur and professional photographers. It requires minimal training, which can be done online.

The company makes money by selling interior photography, which is what the Local Business Ambassadors shoot (there are formal territories). One of the things that I’ve wondered is how much success the company is having with that program. Schoonmaker said that EveryScape is concentrating on building out neighborhoods and is having success because of the visual nature of the product and the profiles. “Like everything, the first one is the hardest,” Schoonmaker explained. “But it gets easier with each business because when they see other businesses around them there, they want to be there.”

The Ambassadors program is critical to EveryScape’s success in gaining content and sales. But EveryScape, like Google Earth/Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth, is also becoming a platform that others can develop on top of. Schoonmaker and I discussed several “mashups” that might result. There are some very interesting possbilities indeed.\

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Update: I spoke at Where 2.0 to Schoonmaker, who demo’d some of the new, aggregated content that EveryScape is incorporating. He also showed me the ability to annotate EveryScape profiles (and keep them private or make them public) — Scape Memos– so it becomes a UGC platform in its own right.

Schoonmaker also told me that the Ambassadors program doesn’t replace “scape artists,” as I previously thought. Scape artists still exist but the Ambassadors get paid and are a quasi-professional group.