A new social networking site to bring the neighborhood closer: Nextdoor

According to foreign media reports, social networking sites have narrowed the distance between people, so that people can get to know more friends at home. However, in this information age, we seem to have been keen to make friends with the Internet, but neglected with the side, especially in the neighbourhood of the exchanges. Randelstross, a business professor at San Jose State University and a prominent columnist, Randall Stross, recently published an article about the neighborhood social networking site Nextdoor, which is the full text summary:

Maybe it's because I'm naturally shy and I don't know many neighbors. That changed until I joined the Community based social network nextdoor.com. Even shy people like me feel that Nextdoor is a comfort.

The social networking nextdoor.com provides a forum for neighborhoods and maps that show a building. It displays members and Non-members ' homes in different colors.

"As you grow older, the most valuable community for you is the residential area you live in," said Nirav Tolia, chief executive of Nextdoor, based in San Francisco, Nilaftolia. You buy homes here, your kids go to school here, and most of your real life happens here. ”

The map on the nextdoor can show members ' houses, but you can choose not to label your name. It also has a forum for posting interest topics, a catalog of items for sale or free gifts, and a local service database.

The service, launched last October, has already established more than 2000 such communities across the United States, with about 500 to 750 families per community. Nextdoor mainly uses geographic data provider Maponics defined residential geographic boundaries.

Unlike some of the other "neighborhood" sites, Nextdoor's internal Web pages are private. On Nextdoor, everything, including the Membership Directory, is visible only to members, so marketers cannot collect your name and address from here. And this information will not appear in search engine results.

To avoid breaking in, Nextdoor needs new members to prove that they do live in what they call a residential area. You can use a credit card that is bound to your address to deposit 1 cents, or to have an existing member vouch for your identity.

After verifying the address, you can view the map and see which other neighbors have joined the service. At present, 20% of the residents of the San Francisco suburbs are members of the Nextdoor.

You can choose to receive posts in e-mail so you can see them without having to visit the Nextdoor site. Posts can be received on a daily basis, and can be accepted once a day, and if there is an urgent reminder, it will send you a text message.

Advertising issues

Nextdoor's services are free, at least not so far. The company on the FAQ page says it will invite local businesses to offer exclusive offers to members. That means the company will help "local businesses strengthen their own communities." ”

At the same time, the company will rely on funds raised from Benchmark Capital and Shasta Ventures to maintain its operations.

Tollia said: "On Facebook, you will be in the announcement of marriage information or holiday photos next to see the ads, this feeling is not very amenable." "On the Nextdoor, the local water electrician's ads will be appropriately displayed next to the posts the user is seeking to recommend," he said.

But Nextdoor members may think of advertising as an "invasion." Last week, at my own Nextdoor residents ' forum, a member asked everyone to recommend a good gardener to him, but the result was a buzz. Some members were happy to recommend the gardener to him, but a personal certificate of local insurance agent was somehow posted. Several members thought it was an advertisement and expressed their disappointment.

One member said: We should not allow advertising at all. Several others vowed to leave the site if Nextdoor allowed the ads to enter. This shows that everyone is very careful to protect the space of the residential area, whether this space is realistic or virtual.

The entrepreneurial space of a neighbor's social network

Neighborhood identities were not destroyed by the Internet. Robert J. Sampson, a professor of social science at Harvard University, said: "Many people have a misconception that technology will inevitably lead to the decline of local communities." I disagree with this statement. You can actually use technology to promote local contacts. ”

Professor Sampson was very attentive to avoiding exaggerating the intimacy of his neighbour's relationship. Neighbor relations are not as close as friendship, nor anonymous. It formed a network of acquaintances, and Professor Sampson defined it as a kind of trust that people shared, even though they were not good friends.

In his new book, The Great American City: Chicago and the enduring neighbourhood effect, Professor Sampson said it is not new to worry about the decline of the so-called urban community. As early as 1938, Louiseworth (Louis Wirth), the social scientists, made the social relationship between "anonymity" and "casual acquaintances" a basic element of the city. But Prof Sampson says this ignores the idea that cities are shaped by communities of different characteristics.

Facebook was the first social network built around a unique community (Harvard campus). It uses the email address that Harvard assigns to everyone to verify the place of residence.

But when Facebook went beyond the campus, it left the residential unit on its side. This creates opportunities for startups such as Nextdoor to create what Facebook no longer offers: A network life defined by a real-world proximity.