Want to know something about a neighborhood? Ask the people that live there.....
Adding to the vast amount of geographical information publicly available through Google's applications such as Earth and Maps, which have additional content such as Street View (photos taken from the street displayed in Google Earth) and Panoramio (user photos from anywhere available in Google Earth) etc, is Askaro. Askaro is a way of asking geographically relevant questions about anywhere. For example, you might ask how much going rate is for a cup of coffee in Devonport, NZ. You place this question, on Devonport, on the map (map provided via Google Maps API), and hope to get an unbiased answer from the people that live there.
Any user can ask a question about an area and any other user can answer that question. Askaro was created by the same photo sharing entrepreneur who created Panoramio (Eduardo Manchon), the company that allows you to see any user's photographs displayed on location in Google Earth. Panoramio was sold to Google to work in with Google Earth; perhaps Askaro is intended for a similar transaction.
Eduardo is now leaving Google to pursue the development and marketing of Askaro.
The service seems big in Spanish speaking countries and inevitably has been used in most other large countries/cities but looks as though it doesn't have much of a following in NZ. It seems a complex system for such easily shared information but with the right kind of marketing and a simplification of the interface it just might catch on.
As is often the case, a great idea still needs great execution for it to work. Check out Askaro for yourself.