digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover and share the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

iBegin: The Craigslist of local search

toronto.ibegin.com — Reading their blog at www.ibegin.com/blog, iBegin claims 'local search done right.' Starting off from Toronto they intend on expanding to other cities. Very nice and slick packaging using lightweight graphics and AJAX sprinkled through. If you have ever been frustrated with other local searches, iBegin will be for you.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • zeeg, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6It's looking good so far, can't wait to see what happens when it's finished
  • ryanwhitham, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4finally tagging for local search.
  • sabineg, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Green and yellow, that's different. I really like the content area and stuff. When will it be open? Is it going to come to the states?
    • AhmedF, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Eventually, just starting off with Toronto. Once perfected, expansion comes.
  • AhmedF, on 10/12/2007, -7/+715 things that make iBegin nice: http://www.ajaxreview.com/p_ibegin_15_things_that_it_does_right_or_just_plain_well.html
  • nikonX, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4looks good....
  • mushroomlord, on 10/12/2007, -9/+5it seems pretty damn good
  • eacheson, on 10/12/2007, -8/+6woohooo!!! lovin' it
  • landland, on 10/12/2007, -8/+6awesomeness totally
  • Rajio, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5good stuff
  • soulvoid, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Slick interface, can't wait until they expand into my city.
  • sindai, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6love the site! Badges are a fun idea!!!
  • Garthilk, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6I'm impressed. Slick interface, I can't wait to see it in my area.
  • vespesian, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5Attn GTA'ers - Ahmed's done his homework. Use it already.
  • MobCat40, on 10/12/2007, -6/+8WOW! That is awesome! I love how it's just like google and puts you right in the search box at loading. The reviews system is terrific too and amazing to see it's been extended into every feature the city could offer with reviews. I can see this really connecting people =) Great site! Bring it to San Diego
    • mailman-zero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'd love to work with them on getting info for San Diego. Where do I submit my "resumay?"
  • Petrarch1603, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3Is this really Digg front page material...they only have one city covered. Its not really useful anywhere else. Don't compare something to Craigslist when it hasnt even expanded to other cities. No digg.
    • xeeton, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Craigslist was one city at one point. It was SF I beleive.
  • uptown, on 10/12/2007, -9/+5iDontLiveThere
  • Googled, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Very good use of javascript and css.

    +
  • reaver, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Looks great. Now they just need to expand it. It can't be that hard to expand it, let users update it with new hotels, etc.
  • johnwiseman, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Very nice
  • 97cobra, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1why do so many things have to use the little "i" in front of everything
  • syuusuke, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5very nice interface and features but community is still needed to expand. Alot of potential nonetheless.
  • lobbster, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4from what i hear it is good but does anyone have a mirror, also why oh why did they have to put an i in the name
  • cmdrNacho, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5not impressed.. prefer craigslist
  • lazyguy, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4XD i live in toronto

  • ttntyler, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Really cool site
  • ghelton, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Its cool, I'd like to see them bring this to other cities.
  • nickzee, on 10/12/2007, -7/+6This is so much different from the yellow pages .... (sarcasm)
    This is garbage , google still rocks over this crap... I see no use for this if you live in the city...
    This thing is completely useless,,,
    • Sepand, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Then I think obviously you haven't looked into it that well. This is by far better than google's. Type in "bars on bloor", and see what comes up. I don't see google doing that. And the listings are yet to be complete and the site to be perfected. I'll leave it at that. AhmedF can explain the other positives.
  • jghyde, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3awesome local search concept. rock on!!
  • Denjira, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2umm, it thinks I'm in Toronto.. but I'm not even in Ontario
  • randal2k, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3nice indeed!
  • ilk604, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4ah, this is similar to www.everylist.com?
    • AhmedF, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4No that site is a classified site - this is a local search site.
  • lambda, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4Toronto? Is that like a suburb of Detroit?
  • AhmedF, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Denjira - just like Craigslist, it is starting off with one city (Toronto), and then will expand.
    • Denjira, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Oh ok, so everyone was seeing Toronto.
      I had thought it stuck me with the nearest supported city, I'm in Montreal..
  • theOster, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3where are the missed connections?!
  • avantretard, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I used it to find some vintage clothing stores to hit while I'm in TO during slack week. Found a couple I'll want to check out, then used google for reviews and homepages. I like it. I'll add some reviews when I get back. That is really where something like this can get very usefull, when it is also a source of recommendations.
  • ElectricGrandpa, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I'm a Mississaugian(sp?) who works in Toronto, and I think that it's a great site. I know it's probably impossible for now, but one awesome future feature would be if you could search within a certain number of kilometres from an address.
    • AhmedF, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3You cannot search for a specific value yet, but you can use Further Away | Closer to increase/decrease your search radius (when doing a locality search).
  • overrated, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I used to live in Toronto so I am very familiar with the city, I typed in my favorite local bar in the search box and nothing came up. So I went through the restaurant tag and found it by sift through the pages manually. I see a lot of potential for this but its still very rough around the edges, +digg for the concept but Google is still tops.
  • seanasy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3What are you people talking about. The results are... well... crap. Search for hotels yields 1 result. 'Movies' the same. 'Beer' = none. I'm beginning to think Digg is full of paid shill comments.
  • jaybones1515, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Obviously, the sites creator has a lot of experience on the interweb. Afterall, he must have at least 200 digg accounts. Because this is a site only its mother could love---and promote.
    • fac3less, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2I agree. ;)

      Wait until you see the competitor's equivalent... iBegin is going to get turned into iBeggin.
  • codefreez, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Meh, it looks like the database of results is populated entirely by user submissions. If there aren't users submitting for a particular segment of businesses, there aren't no/weak results. For example, search "road bike" on ibegin and "road bike in toronto, ca" on local.google.com. Google provides much better results.
    • codefreez, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0err s/aren't/are/

      Also, I noticed there are duplicated results on ibegin in some cases. :-/
  • shakamunya, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Not even as good as Yelp
    http://www.yelp.com/
    • AhmedF, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yelp focuses on reviews, whereas iBegin focuses on search. Its like comparing Yahoo and Google from 3 years ago :p
  • Kailash.Nadh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I was pretty sure this was gonna be a huge success! Good luck Ahmed!
  • Julian_Photo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2looks pretty cool
    a keyword search would make it killer
    • AhmedF, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3But it does use keywords - you add tags, and then those become part of the search index :)
  • plaxx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1i dont care about this. im just testing out the new comment box. edit: awesome.
  • dewdrops, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0 t
  • dewdrops, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1This is weak. Where's the navigation ?

    Openlist is better:
    http://www.openlist.com/all-browse.htm?vertical=restaurants&query=italian&loc=Boston%2C+MA&x=0&y=0
    • AhmedF, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2OpenList is interesting, but it also uses a Google-esque approach - collate information from around the web. iBegin relies exclusively on the end-user as the originator of information, moderation, and balance.
  • bickfordb, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0yelp is better...it has neighborhoods, content, maps, and lots of reviews already

    http://www.yelp.com/search?cflt=restaurants&find_loc=San+Francisco%2C+CA+94101&sortby=rating
    • AhmedF, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I don't see how you can compare a brand new website to one almost one year old :)
  • Shmoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is definitely a cool website. For some reason I'm actually excited about adding locations and photographs for my fellow Torontonians. However, for a social website it doesn't seem like there's much opportunity to interact with other users. Maybe a forum would be nice.
    • AhmedF, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Events are coming next, and a bulletin board etc are all planned. The idea for now was to get the main product (local search driven by users) out and then focus on the other elements.
  • DAJB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Like the site but the challenge to make it work will be getting the critical mass of participation (reviews, listings, adding photos, etc.) in all the localities in order to differentiate itself from Google. The beauty of Google's model is that they simply automate the organization of other people's data and the more other people create data the stronger they become. Google does not depend on people to edit content or otherwise enhance the user's experience. Ibegin without enough user buy-in is simply a technically slick city-only site, like boston.com run by the Boston Globe..
    • AhmedF, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You are absolutely 100% correct. The 'challenge' (or X-factor if you wish) is if the site will uptake with others, compelling them to post reviews and etc. Only time will tell!
  • j4s0n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i love the rewrites... good work Ahmed. And I like the badges concept! They are sooooooo cool.
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.