I am always looking for cool new ways people think about community and how to use Web 2.0 to improve communications and personal interactions.  YourStreet is a notable example of how to use Web 2.0 tools to create value.

It is such a simple concept.  Take the original community idea, our neighborhood, and bring it online.  It brings local mapping, news and blogs together with conversations to create new forms of interaction using the original community. 

YourStreet describes the tool like this:

YourStreet transforms the way you experience local news by indexing and mapping thousands of articles, blogs, and conversations down to the street level...

YourStreet scans thousands of newspaper sites and local blogs each day to bring you the most comprehensive local news available anywhere....

Drag the map or zoom in to get more information about a location....

You can get involved in lots of ways:

• Comment on an article
• Start or add to a local conversation
• Create a user profile to let your neighbors know who you are

So jump in, share your voice, meet your neighbors, and find out everything that’s going on around you.

I need to play around with the site some more but my first impression is: It's super easy to register, the navigation and design are simple and uncluttered.  The only negative, it's ad driven and the ads are prominent on the site. 

So far I'm impressed.  I hope the site gains some traction so I can see the full value.