As CitySquares.com grows we need to make sure that the site continues to be easy to navigate and that all the people who use the site can find everything they’re looking for. One of the big additions to the site is a greatly improved navigation system that makes getting from one place to another much easier. We redesigned the header area at the top of the site so it would take up less space which in turn moves important content higher up the page. Now you can just change your location by typing in the city, town or zip code directly into the ‘change location’ text box as shown in the sample below.

Speaking of improvements, we created a cleaner and simpler home page that better articulates to our neighbors and merchant audiences just what CitySquares.com is about, and what you can do. On the new home page we added a really cool ‘What’s New’ scrolling ticker so users can see, in real time, what is happening on the site. The ticker shows the latest reviews, ratings, merchant profile edits and other activities on the site. We also added a more obvious call-to-action so small businesses can quickly jump into updating or upgrading their profile. There is also a list of top cities and a prominent location text field so users may jump to the location of their choice with ease. Visit the new home page here.

We think we’ve done a great job at providing valuable business content to users but we wanted to add more fun and engaging stuff too, so users could share their favorite businesses with friends and family as well. After figuring out what we wanted, and coincidentally meeting the folks over at AgendiZe, we entered into a partnership with them to bring you just the goods we envisioned! Agendize offers a plethora of viral tools for users such as sending a text message, add to Facebook and other bookmarks as well as instant messaging, saving to Outlook and so much more. You can see a sample of it here on this profile. Just click on on the of yellow buttons below the profile information and you will get a window of options. Every single profile on CitySquares.com has these tools so please start sharing your favorite businesses.

Lastly we added national events to the site which is just one of the early steps to truly become what we’ve long envisitione – to be your neighborhood online. The events are brought to you through our partnership with another great company called Eventful. You can find local, and hyperlocal, events all across the country on all the city, town, and neighborhood pages on CitySquares.com. Go here to see hyperlocal events in Wrigleyville Chicago!

Well, that’s quite a bit since our national roll out! And that’s not it either. Very soon we’ll be rolling out even more – including hyperlocal news, community information, classifieds, and some really fun tools to allow users to find everything they need about their location on CitySquares but more specifically, in their real world, their community.

Stay tuned for more updates and improvements to the site! We’re on a mission to provide the most hyperlocal content on the web – from business info, to real community info, events, news, classifieds, you name it. We aim to be Your Neighborhood, Online! Now the fun really starts.

If you have any questions or feedback please feel free to leave some comments here! We’re always happy to chat and hear your thoughts.

Down the right side of each city and neighborhood homepages we’ve got two new sections: “Featured Deals” and “Featured Reviews”

• “Featured Deals” highlights deals and coupons currently being offered by businesses. Watch this section to get some great discounts on local businesses in your area.
• “Featured Reviews” highlights recently posted business reviews in your area. Read what others are saying, or post your own review!

In addition to the sidebar changes we’ve reworked the entire business listing section.

• “Browse By Category” allows you to jump directly to a specific category right from the home page.
• “Browse By Popular Tags” lets you search for the most popular tags in your area.
• You’ll also see a featured video from our video library of local businesses. And keep your eyes peeled for even more videos coming to the site shortly.

Even better, every one of these features is location specific. Love the Back Bay? Every Deal, Review, Tag, and Category featured on the Back Bay home page is tailored specifically to that area. Prefer Harvard Square? No problem, with our true hyper-local focus, you’ll get only the best local business information.

We’re not sitting back and relaxing yet though, we’ve got a number of features planned for the coming weeks to improve the user experience and make it even easier to find what you’re looking for. We’ll be adding amenities information for restaurants, so you can know ahead of time what type of payment they accept, if they take reservations, what type of cuisine they offer, and what the ambiance is like.

Also upcoming on the home page is a section we like to call “What’s Hot.” This will give you a quick look at the top rated businesses in a number of popular categories for your location.

Something else in the wings, and a bit of a pilot test, is a new way to contact businesses directly and search for what you need. Enter your phone number and what you’re looking for, businesses matching your search are automatically contacted to match your needs, and you are automatically and anonymously connected when a match is found. Your phone number remains private, you get exactly what you need, and save time calling them all yourself.

Well that’s all we’ve got for this week. As always, feedback and ideas are welcome, leave a comment or send an email. Check back next week for the latest updates, and keep checking the site for new features!

-Michael

• Faceted Search: This feature allows users to refine their search results after an initial keyword search. You may refine these results by distance, rating, reviews, location (city or neighborhood), category and alphabet. Not only does it make it easier to find what you are looking for but it also lets you explore other parts of the site with ease. Check out the screenshot below. We’ll be expanding this over the next few weeks as well, to include things like cuisine type, payment type, hours of operation, and more. Be on the lookout for that!
• Favorite Neighborhood: Users can select a favorite neighborhood. Each time you login or return to the site, while still logged in, you’ll automatically go to your saved favorite neighborhood. The “Make This My Favorite ‘Hood!” button can be found on the top of all neighborhood home pages – see the South End, for example.
• Send messages to businesses: Users can now send a business a message using the quick note feature in the business profile. On the profile page of our customers you will see a text area where you can send a question or inquiry directly to the business.
• RSS: We now offer syndicated feeds that are available for businesses on our site organized by location (city or neighborhood) and category. Please grab a feed or two for your site or subscribe to get the latest business information from CitySquares in your blog reader.

Along with these features we are always improving things behind the scenes which includes making the site run more efficiently and fixing the small things that make your browsing experience more pleasurable.

Furthermore, we have some great features coming over the next couple of weeks including enhancing the homepage to display featured categories, reviews and deals from local merchants along with an amazing new mapping feature that lets you browse the cities and neighborhoods of Greater Boston in visual manner. We’re proud that CitySquares.com is your Boston destination site. Please tune in each week for more updates on the new things we have cooking in the oven.

If you have any feedback or ideas I’d love to hear from you! Just drop me an email or drop us a comment on this blog.

– Bob