About Frederick James City Guide and the iPhone

A new type of city guide

Explore the city block by block

See every business on a block

New York, New York

Manhattan

About Frederick James

Frederick James is a hyperlocal search prototype. It is built for areas of cities that users would be walking around rather than driving. This is one of the main differences between hyperlocal search and typical local search. Frederick James doesn't include driving directions because it assumes that the users are going to walk within a few blocks of where they are going to be. The site allows users to virtually walk through an area of a city block by block, street by street. It takes local search one step farther than the current local search engines. Imagine being on Google Local or Google Maps and zooming in one more time to see every business on a block. Or imagine walking around with your iPhone and finding a business that you need right when you need it. That is what Frederick James does.

Future Enhancements

The current version of Frederick James is a prototype and we are aware that a few more features and enhancements would make it much more useful. Below is a list of what we would like to see happen on the Frederick James site:

Better Site Search
We are using Google's site search. Google only indexes pages once they reach a certain page rank. Page rank is determined by how often the page is accessed, how relevant the page is to search criteria and how many quality links connect to that page. As the traffic on the site grows and as other sites link to Frederick James, our page rank will increase and the site search will perform better.

Do you run a web site? Link to us and help us build our page rank. You can link to the homepage (www.frederickjames.com) or to any page on the site.

Google Maps Mashup/Integration
There needs to be a visual map of where you are in the city to relate the hyperlocal view with a larger view.

Are you a Google Maps expert and know how to do mashups? Email us at info@frederickjames.com if you are interested in donating your time to work with us.

More Information
Telephone numbers, links to websites and hours of operations would be useful for the listings. Again, a Google Maps Mashup would provide some of this information. The eventual plan is to allow vendors to to be able to update their free basic listings themselves and to upgrade to enhanced listings and pay via credit card.

If you are a technologist and know of a solution to allow us to accomplish enhanced listings, please contact us at info@frederickjames.com.

Wiki-like Functionality
One of the most complicated parts of the Frederick James business is keeping the listings up-to-date. Businesses are always coming and going. The plan for this is to incorporate a Wiki-like functionality that would allow users to make corrections to the listings database. If a user was walking down a street and saw that a restaurant closed but a new one had opened, they could go on to Frederick James and update the listing in real time. As usage to the site grows more users would be correcting the listings and keeping them up-to-date.

Are you a Wiki expert and know how to provide this functionality? Let us know info@frederickjames.com.

Database
The listings need to be put into a robust database.

Design
The current design is a prototype. It is simple in nature on purpose. As the business expands we want to incorporate a more sophisticated but yet still simple and user friendly design.

Mobile
Once we have a robust database we need to create a mobile version of the site. Hyperlocal information is most useful when you are out walking around. Thanks to the iPhone, Frederick James now is mobile! Just turn your iPhone sideways and Frederick James works perfectly. Using Frederick James on your iPhone? Let us know.

Help Build the Site

As you can you see from the above list, we have thought about ways to make the site more useful. If there are other ideas that you have we would love to hear from you. Please email us at info@frederickjames.com and give us thoughts, suggestions and comments.

In addition, if you would be interested in working on any of these ideas or interested in providing funding for the business please contact us as well.

Thanks for reading more about Frederick James and enjoy the site!

Send all corrections and suggestions to: info@frederickjames.com