Neighborhood Notes

Want a donut? Want to know if you'll need an umbrella today? Trying to avoid traffic? Want to know if it's safe for your kids to play in the front yard? We'll look a dozen-ish mashups that provide useful, helpful, interesting and fun information about the local area that you you live in. For those asking what a mashup is? The web 2.0 world spawned thousands of social networks and user contributed content sites... The same world has connected even more sites and people with the ability for developers to take the APIs from a couple different sites and mash them together to create new and interesting ways to share information and data.

WalkScore | Find What's In a Walkable Distance

"Walk Score shows you a map of what is nearby and calculates a Walk Score for any property. Buying a house in a walkable neighborhood is good for your health and good for the environment." Portland rates in their top 10 cities. You can even see their directory of Portland neighborhoods.

DriveScore | Not Much of a Walker?

"Drive Score shows a map of what establishments are in a property’s neighborhood and calculates a Drive Score based on the number of places within a convenient driving distance. With Drive Score, buyers can see how close establishments are by car. Homes are often located in an area where restaurants, libraries, grocery stores, hospitals and other businesses are easier to get to by car than on foot."

HousingMaps | Find a New Place to Live

Craigslist is a very useful site for finding local things to buy or sell, or rooms to rent or rent out... Unfortunately they don't have any mapping features built into the site so you can browse things by area, but with this mashup you can browse craigslist housing data on a google map.

HotSpotr | Find WiFi Access Near You

Did your neighbor finally secure his wireless connection and now you can't surf the web for free anymore? Use this tool to find out where there is free wifi near you.

UrbanDrinks | Enjoy a Local Happy Hour

Who doesn't love discounted beers and other alcoholic berverages... along with cheap eats?

Unthirsty | Still Looking for a Happy Hour?

Portland must be a city of lushes, because two great happy hour mashups have been created by Portlanders.

RottenNeighbor | Know Thy Neighbor

Rotten Neighbors, rad Neighbors, Sex Offenders, Foreclosures... Know what's going on in your hood.

WeatherBonk | Local Weather & Traffic

Live weather, forecasts, webcams, and more on a Google Map.

WunderMap | Local Temperature and Radar Mapping

In case you prefer another flavor of weather data.

Umbrella Today | Simple Weather Preparation

A much simpler weather site... and for people in Portland who don't think the site is working... people who don't live where we do don't always get the "YES you need an umbrella" message. You can even set the service up to alert you on days you'll need your umbrella...ella...ella...eh...eh.

GasPrices | Cheap Gasoline Near You

Just the other day I stopped with my brother to fill up my tank and then just a few miles down the road we saw gas that was $.50 cheaper. A few cents is not big deal, but I could have saved $6. This mashup from mapquest isn’t the most populated map I’ve ever seen, but it’s a good place to start.

SpeedTrap | Know Where They're Hiding... Or Just Down

"Njection provides an invaluable service to those of us behind the wheel who don't have fistfuls of cash to hand over to the likes of Prudential, Geico, or Progressive. Simply click on the SpeedTrap section and see where the danger of being pulled over is the greatest. Money and time saved, broken hearts and broken banks avoided. It's that simple."

SkateSpotter | Looking for a Place to Skate?

"Search, rate, and discuss skate spots, parks and shops in your neighborhood using Google Maps." gas that was $.50 cheaper. A few cents is not big deal, but I could have saved $6. This mashup from mapquest isn't the most populated map I've ever seen, but it's a good place to start.

PaczkiTime | Get Your Fat On... And Then Back Off

Not all mashups are technically useful... but that doesn't mean they aren't entertaining. With this tool you can find local Donut and Bagel Shops... and then local weight loss centers for after you've eaten one too many bismark cremes.

Nuclear Blast Effects Simulator | For You Tinfoil Hat Wearing Readers

Whew! I'm glad Portland isn't on the Nuclear Blast Effects Simulator...

Darius is an Internet Astronaut and the creator and editor of COLOURlovers.com. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.