Xeni Jardin mentioned Placeblogger over at BoingBoing, and I have to say that I'm excited to see it (and a bit upset that I didn't think of it first). Finding an extra dash of local color really makes a vacation much more enjoyable, and the blog scene never disappoints. Sadly, finding those localized blogs has always been pretty daunting; a bit of wading through search results and then following the links from one blog to the next until stumbling across the one writer with a coherent thought.

Placeblogger is essentially a directory that groups personal blogs and local news sites by geographic location. It's a little less involved than outside.in, but more useful for finding those sites that specialize in a certain aspect of a single city. The media buzz on the launch is a bit on the "Wow, citizen journalists!!!!!" side, but the utility of the site can't be disputed. There are a little over 700 blogs indexed so far, and that includes active and dead blogs (for archival purposes). There are OPML feeds available for adding an entire city's reading material to your feed reader in one fell swoop. Good job, Lisa and team!