We (Local Matters, Inc.) launched Local Guides today. It’s essentially a site that allows people to create simple narratives of local experiences and then publish and share them. This space is very crowded but we think we have something that is positioned really well. It’s more than just simple ratings and reviews or personalized maps. Yet it’s not some full-blown general purpose tool like blogging software. It’s focused on local places and businesses and helping people tell their stores about places to go, things to do and maybe even people to meet. More will be posted here but just wanted to say that Jeannette McClennan gave us the leadership and discipline to create a site that was focused on what we could determine were the honest needs of consumers and that filled a discrete niche in the industry. More can be found at Perry Evans, CEO of LMI’s blog.