Found via the LICNYC blog and created by The Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center, Oasis Map might be one of the most interesting NYC mapping services I’ve seen to-date. The Oasis Map offers a variety of criteria for viewing including a neat look back all the way to the year 1609!

You can search by block, ZIP code, neighborhood, community district and county/borough. Once you have selected a location, there are a few hundred layers you can apply to the map. Some of the layers include:

• Land use (parking/commercial/industrial/etc)
• Social services – education, housing
• Population characteristics
• Water and wetlands
• Parks and open space (golf, baseball, cemeteries, federal land, etc)
• Transit and roads (my favorite) – they show all of the subway lines in the city on the map

If you click on a building, an aerial view appears via Microsoft Virtual Earth. There is also a tab for very detailed information on the building you have selected and the neighborhood.

Even if you aren’t from NYC, it’s worth checking out the Oasis Map.

Find more stories about: nextNY, NYC, UpNext

We first reviewed the UpNext web application at the end of 2007. Last week I met with the team and they provided a demo of their new iPhone application which rocks as much as their web application does. In fact, the iPhone app looks even better than the website itself.

Basically UpNext provides an interactive map (currently Manhattan only) that allows you to move around the map as if you were flying through the city. In the iPhone application you can use different finger gestures to see different views of the map. Clicking on a building will show you what’s inside the building – from companies, to shops to eateries.

The application uses the GPS functions on the iPhone to locate you within the map and then you can search for items based on their distance from where you are. You can send your location to Twitter and Facebook if you connect via Facebook connect. The team drew all the subway lines by hand so you can see which subways are close to where you are or where you are searching. My suggestion to the team was to tie in real-time subway alerts so that you can make any necessary changes. This would also make the app more useful on a daily basis.

For many of the locations, UpNext provides ratings, reviews, and descriptions. You can leave comments as well about a location as you travel through the city. You can also add photos to locations.

What would be great is if UpNext pulled in data from SitOrSquat so that you can see where clean toilets are near your location.

The UpNext iPhone app is available for $2.99. Here’s a video the team created about how the application works.

Find more stories about: iphone, mobile, nextNY, NYC, UpNext

NY-based 3d mapping service UpNext has released the next version of their beta application. We met with the UpNext team in late 2007 and if you are new to the service, check out our review. I spoke with co-founder Danny Moon who noted that the site is much more compatible/stable and load time is much faster. He also provided the following updates and enhancements:

Community:

• Overlay buttons – on the top right of the map are now 3 buttons that bring out more content. We wanted to elevate the content being contributed to the site and show what people were reviewing and marking.
• Friends – shows you what your friends have marked (requires an account)
• Community – shows the latest actions from the community
• My Profile – shows you what you have marked or commented on (requires an account)
• Notes – you can now at notes to a location once you mark it as “I’ve Been Here” — this was one of my suggestions :)
• Friend Slider – at the top of the map there is a pull down for seeing people in the community

Other updates:

• Highly geo-targeted ads from Lat49 in the bottom left. Move the map around and zoom in and out and the ads dynamically change based on what area you are looking at.
• Compass in the bottom right for another way of navigating

Find more stories about: NYC, Quick News, UpNext

It’s rare that I actually instantly love what a service/product offers. But UpNext is one of those "damn" type applications. This morning I met with the CEO Danny Moon and Lead Engineer Raj Advani of a new startup called UpNext. UpNext is the next generation of Local. Notice I didn’t say Local Search – because the application is a lot more than that.

The core of their service is the 3d map (screenshot below) which allows you to pan, rotate, change the angle, zoom, etc. It’s like a video game to some extent in the quality of the graphics and the speed of movement. The backend is Java which requires you to download the applet (takes about 1 minute on broadband) and Raj noted that once you have the applet, you won’t need to download it again – all other info is fed while using the system.

Danny said that, "discovery is lacking in local search" – I agree with this and know that for a new resident, exploration is key. Sites such as Yelp are great for finding reviews and details on the burger joint down the block, but what if you want to explore the neighborhood in which you are currently? This issue is one that the UpNext team is attempting to address. For example, you can click a building and view what’s inside – both large companies and local establishments. There is also a list view which is built on text that accompanies the options you select inside the map.

They have a social network built into UpNext which allows you to graphically map where your friends have been, read their reviews and also nudge them for a review of a place they have been but haven’t actually written about yet. This is beneficial because you know your friends base better than the average joe reviewer on most local sites.

They are working on a Facebook app which will launch in the next week or so – I got a glimpse of it and it’s hot and certainly not one of Kara’s baby applications. I was asked not to write about the details until it launches next week. A mobile app will follow shortly thereafter.

The map technology alone could be a quick acquisition target. I could see other NY-based services such as ZocDoc and StreetEasy using this technology and partnering as well on the reviews of the area. They are working on an API for partner integration for late 2007/early 2008. This is one of their streams of monetization by either working on a ping-based pricing model or an ad-supported option.

The map stays current in three ways (maybe more but this is what I get): data feeds supplied to UpNext, manual entry by the UpNext team and by user updates. Did you notice that the pizzeria on 48th and 2nd avenue is closed? Go edit the record which creates a community of users to help keep the tool updated.

Versus Yelp, Danny believes UpNext is for a broader audience and versus Down2Night, UpNext goes much deeper than just parties.

The stats show that the map is pretty enticing – current average visitor engagement is 15 minutes. They have 170,000 locations mapped in Manhattan and are working to "own" the NYC space before expanding to other cities. Their initial expansion list includes San Francisco, Boston and other university towns.

The team is 4 people, 2 in NYC and 2 in Orange County, California – all long-time friends. The company is currently bootstrapped and might be looking for funding later in the year. Paging Union Square and DFJ Gotham stat.

I think a twitter-style review system would be a good addition for UpNext. Add a way to just make a quick note about a location (i.e. "don’t order the veggie burger", "Sally gives the best fades in the shop"). And an ATM locator by financial institution. It would be great to click that I am in Union Square and then click Chase Bank and see where is the closest bank, etc. Of course travel directions would be a good addition as well. Lastly, I suggested to Danny and Raj that they work on being able to have permalinks directly inside the map – this is how Google Maps was able to explode on the scene and it will help with search engine optimization. 

Overall I was very impressed both by the application itself and the business acumen that Danny and Raj demonstrated this morning. Here is a map screenshot (the lights are current happenings):

Find more stories about: Insights, NYC, UpNext