I always like talking to Josh Walker, CEO of CityVoter. He’s smart but he’s also a former Forrester analyst who made good (maybe one day I will too). Being an analyst is a little like being a movie critic — or at least that’s how I think about it.
But whether because he’s smart or because he was an analyst Josh is good at seeing where the market is heading. The newly redesigned CityVoter is heading squarely in that direction with an emphasis on connecting people and “real-time” (or quasi real-time) recommendations.
CityVoter has a bunch of local media partners and that won’t change, but over time the look and feel of those partner sites will match the central CityVoter “hub.” The vision is to enable people to connect with personal favorites and lists, branded “best of” lists, as well as Q&A around local and travel-related queries. It’s a big strategic shift or perhaps a bigger commitment to a direction CityVoter was already heading to a degree.
Though it remains a local search site (you can still search), the changes remove CityVoter from the “pack” of local sites that it had formerly been in. What CityVoter is doing is generally consistent with some of my speculation about Twitter and local over the past few months. I think it’s a pretty bold move and very interesting.
There’s also an iPhone app coming that will connect all this to mobile in a more direct way.
Screenwerk 
May 9, 2009 at 1:25 am
[…] CityVoter’s New Strategic Direction — 1:34pm via Google Reader ▶▼ Comment /* 0) { jQuery(‘#comments’).show(”, […]
May 9, 2009 at 1:24 pm
If Mr Walker is so adept at seeing where the market is headed, why is CityVoter releasing an iphone app so late in the game? And what is forward thinking about a “best of” list? Best of lists have been in print for years. Not to mention Yelp and Citysearch have had them since the early 90s.
May 9, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Nothing — but it’s the holistic combination of these things and the movement toward a more “real time” recommendations tool that is novel and forward looking.
May 9, 2009 at 3:03 pm
[…] YP Sites into Recommendations Engines By Greg Sterling I wrote very briefly yesterday that CityVoter’s redesign and new direction was ahead of an emerging trend toward real time recommendations for local. Previously, I said the […]
May 9, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Why are you calling these recommendations “real time” They are just as “real time” as any site. The recommendations on the homepage aren’t “real time.” If you click in you’ll see the content is information that has been on the site for months, it doesn’t demonstrate people who are actively participating on the site. Seems like a cheap ploy to make people believe there is more activity than there really is.
May 9, 2009 at 4:34 pm
A move toward, toward that idea. I didn’t say it was already there:
“The newly redesigned CityVoter is heading squarely in that direction with an emphasis on connecting people and “real-time” (or quasi real-time) recommendations.”
Heading in that direction.
May 10, 2009 at 4:42 pm
[…] wrote very briefly yesterday that CityVoter’s redesign and new direction was ahead of an emerging trend toward real time recommendations for local. Previously, I said the […]
September 22, 2009 at 4:55 pm
[…] with a range of local media companies and operates its own destination site. Not long ago the site redesigned to capture a more Q&A, Twitter-like […]