A Tale of Two City Guides: CitySearch and Microsoft Sidewalk

Two major competitors are facing off in the Web city guide arena: CitySearch, a company founded by the Pasadena-based IdeaLab, and Microsoft's Sidewalk.

Both ventures seek to put a similar online guide format into major cities; both offer comprehensive searchable listings of movies, events, art exhibits, restaurants, etc.; and both have a lot of home-grown editorial talent on staff. On the business side, both are advertising supported and seek partnerships with local TV, radio, and publishing companies.

What's to separate them? Perhaps a difference in style, focus, and relationships to the communities they serve. Since both services are relatively new, it remains to be seen just how distinct they will be--from one another and from city to city. Here's a brief description of each.

Sidewalk

Sidewalk claims to offer residents "a way to make better decisions about what to do, where to go, what to see, and when to see it." The Sidewalk local editorial team provides previews, reviews, and even customized suggestions about what's happening every day.

The first Sidewalk was, understandably, Sidewalk Seattle--a stone's throw from Microsoft HQ in Redmond, WA. Sidewalk New York launched in May and Sidewalk Boston launched July 1.

Other Sidewalk city guides scheduled to launch this year include the Twin Cities, San Francisco, Houston, Washington, DC, San Diego, Denver, and Sydney, Australia.

Microsoft is setting up content and promotional relationships with local sources. In the Seattle area, for example, it's formed partnerships with Seattle Weekly, Sasquatch Books, and Foghorn Press, a publisher of outdoor recreation guidebooks.

The General Manager of Sidewalk New York is Cella Irvine, who was VP and general manager of Hearst New Media before joining Sidewalk in 1996.

Irvine says, "Our research shows that city dwellers around the world are working longer hours and paying the price in their social lives. We designed Sidewalk to be a personalized online city guide devoted primarily to arts and entertainment because that's what the people we surveyed felt was most lacking in their lives. People wanted to escape the dullness and the routine. They wanted to have more fun."

The effervescent Ms. Irvine is well aware of CitySearch and other online city guide services. She says one of the most important things that makes Sidewalk unique is the degree of personalization possible through their technology.

They offer each user the ability to create a personalized "Today" page by completing a survey. Your Today page will contain news and annoucements of those topic areas that are of special interest to you--from jazz to books or whatever. You can also have notices of events you express an interest in e-mailed to you - so you never have to worry about missing the latest local appearance of Laurie Anderson or Mel Torme.

The Sidewalk search engine is also tailored to the special needs of people. The restaurant guide, for example, lets you search for restaurants that are "kid friendly" or bars where you can or can't "take your parents."

Irvine also notes Sidewalk's focus on first rate editorial content and points proudly to their 10+ person editorial staff headed by Executive Producer, Eric Etheridge--former editor of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s trendy political magazine, George.

They also let users contribute to content in their restaurant criticism sections and will be offering discussion and chat features soon.

On the business side, one of Sidewalk's major national partners is CUC International, which will serve as their local sales organization and will connect consumers with local merchants. CUC is a technology-driven, membership-services company that provides over 62.5 million consumers with access to a variety of services including home shopping, travel, insurance, auto, dining, home improvement, lifestyle clubs, checking-account enhancements and discount coupon programs.

CitySearch

CitySearch introduces itself by saying, "In a town where a zillion activities like these are competing for a slot in your Filofax, you need something to help you sort through it all. Read our articles, scan our sections (like Nightclubs and Books & Talks), or slice and dice our giant database with the search engine. We'll help you suit up before you dive in to the city."

CitySearch CEO Charles Conn says that their service has a lot in common with Sidewalk, but that there are at least four important differences:

• CitySearch covers more than just arts and entertainment. The site extends its coverage to include community events, services, and businesses--things like church services, school board meetings, and local shopping. It views its typical users as people in their 30s with children who have broader needs and interests than entertainment and eating out.
• It builds each CitySearch from the ground up within the community by giving free Web presence to government institutions and not-for-profit organizations.
• It uses a different business model. Sidewalk is supported primarily by the ads of national advertisers. CitySearch sells ads to local advertisers and builds them Web sites for a small cost (in the range of $100/month) as part of the deal.
• Except for New York, CitySearch and Sidewalk will be located in different cities. Rather than the largest urban centers, CitySearch is going into medium-sized, high technology, high education, government capitals like Austin, TX; Nashville, TN; Portland, OR; Salt Lake City, UT; and Raleigh-Durham, NC.

Like Sidewalk, CitySearch is forming partnerships with local media companies--recently cutting deals with Time Out, the Washington Times, and the LA Post.

CitySearch New York is a bit different from the other instances of CitySearch because it was originally Metrobeat, a groundbreaking listings/content/community site created by Mark Davies. Davies was bought out by the founders of CitySearch, becoming one of New York's first Internet millionaires. He now works for CitySearch as VP of Content Development.

One of the great features of Metrobeat that has been retained in CitySearch is the ability of users to post their own opinions of plays, movies, and restaurants. This established the community of Metrobeat and made it far more than a listing service. Now there are also forums on CitySearch for discussion of a variety of subjects.

Davies felt it was very important that the service be deeply involved with the community it served. To be successful, he believed the site needed three voices: the editorial voice of the site, the voice of the individual business covered by the service, and the voice of the users.

Although CitySearch was dreamt up quite independently by Charles Conn, Bill Gross, and others at IdeaLab, they and Davies share a strong belief in the importance of community involvement. The collaboration has been fruitful for both sides.

Davies is enduring the trials and tribulations, going from being the boss of his own company to being an employee in a 500-person organization. Nonetheless, he's excited by the extraordinary investment the company is making in Web content and the prospect of seeing the vision CitySearch expressed in a number of different cities.

Both Conn and Davies agree that Sidewalk is doing many things well, and that it's good for them to have the competition--it keeps them hard at work trying to do it better.