Blog

New content

12 November 2007: Hi ppl

It's been a while, but I've been working on new content, so now you can wander from the cliff lift under the Spa bridge all the way along the front to the Cafe Del Mar on North Bay, which is cool.

Now to send out some letters.

SIC structure

9 April 2007: I've added the structure to the SIC codes. SIC stands for Standard Industrial Classification, which is the official classification for industrial activity when the government works out its economic figures. I'm using UK SIC (2003).

So now if you pull down the SIC selection chooser you start to see some structure. Once I've entered all the top level SIC codes (I haven't yet) you'll be able to do things like select all the manufacturers in Scarborough, or all those involved in the fishing industry. You can select all the manufacturing companies now.

Is good, no?

I'll add the top level SIC codes as I enter new SICs, so it'll become more complete as I work.

Another 100 added

14 March 2007: That's another 100 added. Most of the seafront is now covered and I'm working down Eastborough. You could work from the Alexandra Bowls Centre all the way along North Marine Road, along St Thomas Street, down Eastborough, then along the seafront past the harbour and around the castle promontory, and that's a nice demonstration of how far it extends so far, next is the harbour itself the south side of Eastborough and then I'm getting into the town centre proper. Exciting.

Page counter added

4 February 2007: Hi ppl

I've added a page counter. It's not perfect .. but it does count how many times each company page has been viewed, so that's interesting, particularly for the company.

What I wanted it to do was to properly count the visits to the different search pages, but they are currently all lumped into home page visits. I'll sort that another time.

300th business

19 January 2007: Well, that's the 300th business and photograph added. I've reached the East side of North Marine Road. Next up is the blocks contained by the East side of St. Thomas Street and the West side of Queen Street, then Newborough, Eastborough and down to the front and the harbour, but I'm pretty busy with other things atm so it'll be slow but steady progress.

First NearToU.com blog entry

16 January 2007: So, what's going on here?

NearToU.com is born of irritation, as many things are.

I don't think current directories do a good enough job. NearToU.com is how I think a local directory should be.

Well. What's really happening is I'm unfairly comparing my vision of what NearToU.com will be with how other directories are. Not fair.

My partner and I went to London once for a gig. We found a hotel online, and I went looking around (again online) for somewhere to eat and found a vegetarian restaurant. I almost called to book a table, but thought we'd just choose somewhere on the night.

When we got there, the vegetarian restaurant was a graffiti'd shack in the middle of a park, closed at night and presumably serving snacks in the day. Boy would my call have been embarrassing to all concerned.

We lead with our eyes, so I think it's good to be able to see the outside of a business, whether it's a shop or someone you're dealing with from afar. It tells you something about the place. It helps you find them.

So the first thing that NearToU.com does is it shows you the outside of the business, along with its business neighbours. And you can click along the street and see what's nearby.

The site's a bit ropey at the moment I'll admit. But it's early days. The idea is businesses pay for an enhanced listing and that pays for improvements to the site. So far that's slow but sure. So if you're a business and you're listed here, you should have had a letter from me, and if you haven't and you want an enhanced listing and to support what's going on here, get in touch.

There's a huge amount to do and it's all very exciting, but I like to keep quiet about these things until they happen, so watch this space.