Jul. 1--Microsoft Corp.'s local information service called Boston Sidewalk debuts today, bringing yet another entry into the already crowded field of Internet information providers.
Boston Sidewalk, at http://www. boston.sidewalk.com, is billed as a comprehensive site for information about dining and entertainment options around the city. It's Microsoft's third local outpost, following the April debut of Seattle Sidewalk and the May unveiling of New York Sidewalk.
Already, the local field is crowded with several major information sources, among them Digital City Boston, available on America Online, and Boston.com, developed by a subsidiary of The Boston Globe. Several smaller local sites provide specialized restaurant listings or reviews of arts events.
"It's definitely a competitive category, but we're trying to take the power of the medium and make it personal and useful for local residents," said Gail Troberman, Seattle-based marketing manager for Sidewalk.
Users can customize Sidewalk to automatically retrieve preselected information, which, for example, could be new restaurants or specific performers or artists. The information is posted to each user's Boston Sidewalk home page, essentially making each page different for each user. Weekly e-mail updates are also available. Detailed maps accompany the restaurant listings; similarly, music and cultural listings are paired with lists of nearby restaurants.
Like all of the first Sidewalk cities, Boston was selected because of its combination of significant factors: high on-line use, and active nightlife and varied cultural offerings.
"We'll be in about 10 cities this year," Troberman said. "We have teams on the ground getting ready to launch in various sites, so we'll be rolling out a city or two a month throughout the year, with more to follow." This colonization push also extends to Sydney, site of the 2000 Summer Olympic Games.
Boston Sidewalk operates out of a converted Canal Street loft in the North End and employs fifteen full-time staff people, many of whom were recruited from AT&T's foundering new media division.
Seattle Sidewalk employs 12 full-time staffers; New York's staffing level of 20 to 25 full timers suits the myraid entertainment options available in the Big Apple.
So far, the Sidewalk sites limit their focus to entertainment-related themes, which may limit the number of site visitors, said Lincoln Millstein, Boston Globe vice president for new media.
"I think they will learn very quickly that people won't go to Boston Sidewalk every day because people don't go out to eat every day and don't go to the movies every day," Millstein said. "Boston.com is up to 650,000 page views a day, making us the single largest regional Web site in the country. I think they will find it very difficult to match that kind of traffic."
Troberman declined to reveal usage figures for Seattle or New York Sidewalk sites, but said "We set some really aggressive goals and we're doing well."
Trish Barber, the "mayor" of Digital City Boston, said Boston Sidewalk is a strong competitor in specific areas, but that her site's presence on both AOL and the Web should continue to "drive a lot of people into the site, which should be attractive to advertisers as well as users."
But with its plans for a worldwide miniempire in multiple cities, Sidewalk hopes to attract a variety of national and local business partners, general manager Barry Kurland said.
"National advertisers can have wide coverage in major cities, but being local means that someone like Barnes and Noble can promote bookstore happenings in Boston locations, or Club Med can promote different vacations to cities on different coasts," Kurland said.
Despite its major backing, Boston Sidewalk will have a "soft opening," trotted out quietly over the next few weeks. Kurland said the local marketing team will explore feedback from both advertisers and users before begining in-city and on-line advertising campaigns.
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