AskCity launches with local search, events

Cory Bergman December 4th, 2006

Today’s the day for new site launches. AskCity, the new local venture from Barry Diller we reported last week, is up and running. It features a business directory, local search, dynamic mapping, events guide and movie listings for most major U.S. cities. CitySearch powers much of the directory and the events guide, and you can buy tickets on TicketMaster (both owned by Diller’s IAC). I haven’t had much time to take it through it’s paces, but it looks rather slick. You can punch up walking and driving directions, write up your own notes on the map and print it all out. Everything can be broken down to sub-categories, and when in doubt, just search for it. Again, this is another big player in the local search/business directory market (especially when you consider CitySearch and Ticketmaster already have significant local audiences to integrate with AskCity) and it will ultimately suck more dollars out of local media companies.