Welcome to the neighborhood

9Neighbors is a site where Boston area residents can share stories, images and videos from other media outlets as well as their own blogs and Flickr accounts.

Members can create profiles, upload images, make friends with other people in their neighborhood and follow a friend, which means they can see what someone finds interesting on the site.

The site launched Sept. 28, 2007 and Rick Burnes, the creator, describes it as the "new local news filtering service" on the site's blog, The 9th Neighbor. 9Neighbors is part of Faneuil Media, which builds online news services.

The 9th Neighbor blog gives information on the internal workings of the site and also directs readers to certain projects. For example, this March 1 post links to a Google map mash-up of potholes in the area. What makes this even more interesting and entertaining is that readers can contribute to the map, adding pothole locations, pictures and descriptions. A simple idea but one that could be useful for drivers, bikers and pedestrians.

Apparently the top stream on 9Neighbors is the MBTA, but I can't figure out for sure if it is the top stream of the day, week or just in general.

I think it is a day-to-day thing and with today being St. Patrick's Day this makes sense as the holiday causes havoc on all lines, especially those that lead drunk college students back to their campuses.

In general the 9Neighbors site does still seem a bit bare. However it has potential because it combines a variety of new technologies like social networking and blogging with the basic desire to know what is going on in your backyard.