Is there room for a service based on location?

Do not just guess the answer, keep doing what you just did by asking the question here. Research, ask people around, find out if there is a "real" need and also a "lack" of a service or community such as the one you have in mind.

Do not start building the community until you have heard from people that they need it and that they will be part of it once it is build.

My personal opinion is that this will be a useful community if done right and if it provides more value than sites such as Yelp.com and citysearch.com

I am not sure exactly what you question is, but yes, I think there is a room for such service.

Location - where in the world? US? Probably there exist some services but you can invent better one.

"Do it myself" - it can be difficult without VC money.

Definitely, the local space is a very interesting area. There is a need for online communities that are based around local resources.

Thanks for all the answers, they help keep me working. The biggest problem I see is bootstrapping, when there is no content provided by users.

I also spend time looking for this type of site, especially on weekends when I want to know what's on around me.

This type of space can be split into a few areas:

• Advertising (business or service)
• Calendar of events (what is on in your local area in a certain date range)
• Reviews (what you thought of a local business, event or place of interest)
• Recommendations (where to go for fun, food, entertainment etc.)

There is a site in Australia http://www.truelocal.com.au/ which covers the review/advertisement space, which would worth wile for you to look at.

My own opinion as to why this space doesn't already exist is due to lack of technical skills. If you look at many local web sites (including for many small local business), they are rarely updated and quite low quality.

I would suggest to improve on this situation you provide a set of tools that are easy to use and look great. Make your site about building a community rather than building a place for business and groups to advertise and the community will look after keeping the information fresh.

The Stack Exchange network (see links in footer) that this site is built on is the perfect example of what you are trying to achieve: good quality tools, good quality community. If you can adapt that to the local space then you are on the right track.

Probably there exist some services but you can invent better one. -Ross

To add to this, there is always "room" for another business in any market. Take the most crowded sector you can think of - if you can find a way to do things more efficiently or effectively (even by just the slightest of margins), then there is room for you in that market.

In other words, it doesn't matter so much if there is already someone else (or lots of people) doing what you speak of - all you need to do is find a way to do it a little better. Many times this is only possible after you have entered the business and interacted with, and sold to real customers (not just researched ones).

I think that if you just do lots and lots of little things right with consistency and constantly improve your business instead of trying to find a gaping hole in the market (there are few if any), you'll usually be ok.