What's nearby just got a whole lot easier to find.
- Find what you're looking for...nearby.
- Exchange goods and services...locally.
- Promote dialogue within your community.
On the internet you can find almost anything, anywhere in the world. Until now, it was almost impossible to find what's in your own neighborhood.
Introducting 4grabs...
4grabs is a location based user contributed publishing system where people post the same things you'd see on a bulletin board at the coffee shop ... except their offers are posted on a map of your community. It's novel way people can find anything--anywhere--by proximity.
It's like Craigslist...but different. Craigslist works in only 500 locations and no rural areas. 'Out of the box', 4grabs works in all of the estimated 425 million cities in the world. That's because we don't organize our database and our posts by a city name. 4grabs posts are geo-tagged with a location on the surface of the earth. And because it's mapped and not based on a city name, you can post 20 miles outside of the nearest town and it still works for everyone.
It's like Blogger and Wordpress...but different. 4grabs locates the content of the blog or article right on the map where it pertains. Going to the beach and want to find everything pertinent to that location, all the blogs about that beach, business listings, special offers at resturants and more?
4grabs lets you search for user-contributed news, events, local resources, items for sale, jobs and people looking for work that are available right in your neighborhood. The results are returned to you sorted by distance from the search location you specify.
Avoid aimless online searches for things, people or events that require long, gas-guzzling drives out of town. If you want to buy a bike, why search in the next county? Why not just drop your dragmarker in the middle of the street on your block and see how many bikes are for sale nearby? If you need a dog-walker, why hire one from across town when you can find one right near where you live?
There's an obvious underlying credo here about localization, recycling, micro-economics and saving gas. When you find solutions according to proximity -- the nearest fun activity, job, worker, bicycle or George Foreman barbecue grill -- you obviously don't have to drive as far to get what you want.
How It Works...
You move a dragmarker 
and plunk it down anywhere on a Google map.
Google calls this the dragmarker because you can mouse-down on it and drag it around.
When you drop the dragmarker, 4grabs immediately runs a search for you, centered at that location, and finds the closest posts in the category you choose. Your search location could be on your own front porch or on any street corner, church parking lot or island shore in any country. Maybe you're looking for a contract worker to fix your iPod, a yard sale or an original painting by David Bowie.
We've added one extra capability to 4grabs. You can link any posting to any web page or website on the internet. Now your web page or website can be found in a local search by proximety.
- If you have a blog, and your blog entry pertains to a certain location, you can post an abstract of your blog, pin it to a location on 4grabs and include a link to your blog.
- If you have a business with a web page or website, you can make a post at the location you do business and link that post to your website.
- If you have a profile on any of the social network sites you can make a post and locate it somewhere close to where you live and link to your profile.
Help us make this work for your community...Post!
Whatever interests you, post it. Post a blog at a location you care about. Post your business or skills. Post a link to your website or a web-page about you. Post those items you want to sell or those 'no longer needed but don't want to throw away' items you're willing to give away for free to your neighbors. How about posting some of that stuff you've been collecting? We know...It's good stuff. We've got plenty of our own. Lighten up your load. Dump some excess baggage. Make some extra money. Share what you've got with others around you. Then if you've got some news, neighborhood safety alerts, ridesharing opportunities or Events that you think would be of interest to your neighbors, post them too.