Always keen to test new web offering I headed out to the www.yourstreet.com site to play with this unique concept that officially launches tomorrow.

YourStreet combines Google Maps and local news, it detects where you are and delivers news stories that have recently occurred in your area as well as comments from people who live near you. It is the first website to map news to a specific location.

CEO James Nicholson explains, “The thing that distinguishes us is that we can get down to a specific street level”. As a business model this means YourStreet can develop advertising campaigns to a specific “street level” audience.

Many people will remember Nicholson from his previous startup NetVentures which was sold to CNET for US$12 million way back in 1999. So far he has self invested around US$400,000 although this figure has not been confirmed.

Now back to the testing.

As I am located in Australia I thought it appropriate to see if this would be localised or to be another US only offering so I typed “AUSTRALIA” into the search and was surprised to find myself looking at at the ‘Mississippi River Leave’ (road) next to the Mississippi River in the middle of Rural Arkanses USA. What was more mystifying was the fact that the word ‘Australia’ was not indicated on the map at all. OK so its going to be US only for startup.

Keen to take it further I decided to see what news and conversations there were in NewYork. Punched it in and was presented with 21 different New Yorks in the US, who knew!!! So i took the New York City link and found myself amongst news and conversations all tagged to specific locations. AMAZING – I was entranced. I was literally walking through news and conversations down the streets of new york and could get the vibe of what people are talking about and why in specific locations.

I hope that this comes to Australia as this WILL be a tool that I will use to see what the local communities are discussing around local issues. Its worth a look. http://www.yourstreet.com