In the spirit of aggregators, I've compiled the most important reactions to Adrian Holovaty's new neighborhood site, EveryBlock.com. My thoughts are saved for last.

THE BEST EXPLAINER ON WHAT EVERYBLOCK DOES

MethodsReporter has the most complete look at the site that I've read. And it makes a good observation about the beginnings of a business plan emerging.

I was surprised to see Google Adsense running on EveryBlock. Having scored the monster grant from the Knight Foundation, Holovaty has repeatedly stated that EveryBlock is a non-commercial project, built for good, not for gain (not that running Adsense is incompatible with that direction).

CRAIGSLIST SUDDENLY FEELING CHARITABLE?

Insider Chatter points out that EveryBlock redistributes hundreds of CraigsList user postings. Holovaty said the site took "publicly available" RSS feeds to offer this service. But in the past CraigsList has stopped aggregators from using these feeds for redistribution (especially when those sites make money), claiming of course that it's users don't want ads in other places. Sure, blame the users.

TECHNICAL WONDER BUT CONTEXTUAL BLUNDER, SOME ARGUE

Danny Sanchez at Journalistopia admires the sheer amount of information being automatically aggregated onto EveryBlock, but he says the site is missing an important part of all reporting: Putting information in context.

I notice something that I’ve also encountered in my work on Orlando-area neighborhood pages and data features: It’s tough to put all of that data into context and provide more historical information such as a community’s history, landmarks and evolving story. For instance, having a highly detailed view of crimes in a neighborhood is really cool, but how does my neighborhood compare to another? How is crime in the neighborhood trending? That’s going to be the next big challenge for news organizations who want to do features such as this.

Derek Willis takes exactly the opposite view.

Perhaps the criticism that has most resonance among CAR folks is the one that goes something like, “EveryBlock sure is an impressive technical feat, but it’s just data without context.” It’s rather a back-handed compliment, given our own efforts at providing data on the Web, but there’s some legitimacy there. It just troubles me when newspaper folks look at something built via a programmatic process as somehow not worthy of the title “journalism.”

To me, the main differences between EveryBlock and some of the efforts at presenting data that newspapers have developed are these: First, EB aggregates in a way that others don’t, both in terms of number and variety of sources. Second, unlike most newspaper products, it seems to be designed to let the consumer make the judgment of what’s news.

THE DEFINITION OF NEWS IS RELATIVE . . .

Of all people, TechDirt had the most concise, best explanation of why EveryBlock should be considered journalism.

The buzz today is about the launch of Everyblock, a new "hyperlocal" news provider that recognizes "news" is different to different people -- and things like what building permits are being requested and what restaurants are being inspected may be news if they're on your block or places you go to regularly.

. . . BUT EVERYBLOCK ISN'T NEWS PEOPLE WANT

The creator of BlockRocker says Holovaty's version might soon encounter the same problem that killed his site: Readers just don't care enough about hyper-local news.

Hyperlocal has consistently been a technology without a market. Interests are generally not boxed by locale, and localization does not necessarily convey relevance (or traffic). This applies to news stories, photos, and so on. The second part of this rant is that generally people aren’t that interested in local data - for example, TC talks about the power of Everyblock being able to pull up a list of recently cleaned graffitti in Brooklyn. Huh. How many people are going to want to check up on that regularly?

OUTSIDE.IN SAYS EVERYBLOCK ISN"T A COMPETITOR

The venture capitalist supporting Outside.in, another neighborhood site that is now partnering with The Washington Post, claims EveryBlock isn't a competitor even though it's available in some of the same locations.

Many of you know that our firm, Union Square Ventures, is an investor in Outside.in, co-founded and run by Steven Johnson (the pothole paradox guy). Techcrunch calls outside.in a competitor of EveryBlock. I think collaborator is more like it. It's going to take more than one company to rebuild the local newspaper from the ground up.

In fact, the first thing we all need to understand about "hyperlocal" is that this is going to be a long slog. It's simple enough to put up a search field and ask for a neighborhood name or zip code and return a result. outside.in has been doing that for over a year now. Here's that result for my neighborhood. Here's EveryBlock's result for the same search. You get two very different results, because the services focus on different kinds of local content. But even so, the results are not that compelling. YET.

MY TAKE: NEWS ABOUT MY HOME LACKS EFFECTIVE HOME PAGE

As someone not living in the EveryBlock coverage area, I found it confusing. But I'm guessing so do other folks. And there's one big reason: Where's the home page?

Once I select my area, it seems like the latest information about my neighborhood appears on one very long page, but I can't be sure. The design is simple most everywhere else but here. For such a successful aggregator of other people's information, it does a poor job of compiling all that's available on its own site into one place that's easily comprehended.

Without a home page, the site requires highly motivated users and it becomes primarily a search tool, albeit with guided links to results. If EveryBlock is in the business of news, it needs a better Page 1A. Or, since this is hyperlocal: 1B.

With that said, let me also throw my support behind this project. Even at its launch, EveryBlock already proves that geocoding information is useful to journalism, and making that point was it's primary mission.

But consider all of that my last bit of free advice. As someone who runs a newspaper Web site, I wouldn't want EveryBlock showing up in my city. That's why I know It's a competitor, despite whatever Holovaty says.