Outside.in Introduces ‘Radar’

Outside.in has launched a new feature called Radar, which allows users to see what’s going on around them (or a location) from a range of sources. According to founder Steven Berlin Johnson: “Right now, we’re tracking blog posts, news stories, outside.in discussions, and Twitter tweats, and organizing them all both around specific places and topics. You’ll see more content — and more kinds of content — flowing through your Radar in the coming months.”

One can zoom in to 1000 feet or zoom out to the neighborhood, city or US as a whole. You can also follow what’s happening in multiple places:

There are also content filters that allow me to track or see certain kinds of events, happenings or information:

All this is pushed by alerts to end users. There’s even a Twitter like dimension to Radar. These additions (and personalization capabilities) make the site much more useful and functional as a local discovery tool. Indeed, search has great but limited utility in a local context.

Here’s some more detail from the official Outside.in blog post.