The social application of the Nextdoor neighborhood is launching a redesigned version of its service called the “new next”. The application is adding local news, real -time alerts and a feature that works with the so -called “favorites” designed to discover local companies and places. Nextdoor has also updated its general design to look more contemporary.
Run 15 years ago, Nextdoor has long served as a popular platform for neighborhood conversations, which helps users connect on things as recommendations for plumbers and suggestions for nearby places to eat. But to any extent, its growth stagnated and the commitment decreased as the platform was associated with publications containing erroneous information and racism.
Now, the company is looking for Turn around And attract more users making their platform more useful, useful and timely. With this redesign, Nextdoor is looking to increase the quality and quantity of local information on the platform, he told Techcrunch, CEO and Co -founder of Nextdoor.
To bring news to its platform, Nextdoor has associated with 3,500 local publications in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. Notable points of sale include the San Francisco standard, the London standard and the Toronto star.
“The reason why this is so important for us is historical, Nextdoor has been based on 100% on the user generated content, only the content created by its neighbors,” Tolia said. “That is a great source of information. But, to make sure it is happening in its neighborhood, we also need to bring local news. So this is the first time we let the third -party editors use our distribution.”
Tolia declared that the thesis is not commercial agreements, since Nextdoor is not paying for the content, nor do the editors pay to the company. In addition, Nextdoor is not hosting the content; Simply shows a headline, a fragment and an image, and directing traffic to publications. Users can discuss the news in a comment section in each publication.
Tolia pointed out that editors are only the first new type of content that arrives in Nextdoor, since the platform plans to allow small businesses, schools and organizations to also have native presences in the application in the future.
In terms of the new alerts, Nextdoor now shows real -time updates on things such as weather, traffic, power cuts, storms and forest fires. These alerts will appear on a dynamic map of the neighborhood, which allows neighbors to have timely conversations about safety and preparation.
The service is associated with Samdesk and Weather.com, which includes the Weather Channel application and Weather.comPower thesis alerts.
“When there is something that is definitely worth paying attention, we call it the yellow state, and we will put that alert at the top,” Tolia said. “When there is something critical, we call that the Red State and will take care of the entire application, because it is a point, you do not care about the conversations that the neighbors have about the pickleball. You do not get the new your neighbors and help to save the lives of others in some cases.”
Tolia pointed out that thesis alerts are hyperlocalized because Nextdoor is based on a geospatial platform. So, unlike Amber alerts that are sent to all in a given place, Nextdoor says that you can customize your alerts to the house. For example, if there is an energy cut, the application will only send the alert to people whose power is out.
As for the launch of the favorites, Tolia says that the recommendations of the neighbors are more valuable than going to Google or Chatgpt when they seek to find a local restaurant or a place to spend time with the family during the weekend, so Nextdoor is launching the function. The new Fave function shows cured lists of recommendations, and also allows you to ask specific questions to obtain suggestions.
“We have a LLM for each neighborhood where we have 15 -year tasks of neighbors and now we can answer questions about that information in a really convincing way,” Tolia said. “So we have the first, as far as we know, the first truly local AI that works with neighboring conversations.”
Can you ask questions such as “What is the best place to walk with children?” And collect a quick and summarized response that extracts information from real user publications in Nextdoor. Under the summary, you can see and click on the publications referred to in the summary.
“This content owns Nextdoor,” Tolia said. “We never share it. It is not indexed by Google. It is not available in Chatgpt, and again, because we know where you live, we can address the information in the most relevant way.”
Tolia pointed out that the unique value of Nextdoor is the digitalization and capture of local mouth, the type of hyperlocal information that is not available through platforms such as Google or Chatgpt, because it can only get it from direct conversations.
“I give the fun example of, if you wanted to know all the lemonade positions that the children are operating in your neighborhood, you cannot go to Google Maps and find that,” Tolia said. “You can’t go to Chatgpt and ask that question, right? The only way will you ask your neighbors. And that’s what follows. So what are we going to do? Like Beel.
