iBrowse: MapQuest site ranks neighborhoods

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MapQuest launched a website that ranks thousands of neighborhoods on quality-of-life measures, including restaurants and bars, shopping and getting around on foot. The company unveiled its mqVibe beta website last week. MapQuest says mqVibe uses algorithms to produce real-time rankings of 50,000 neighborhoods in 27,000 U.S. cities. It also lists best-ranked places for dining, shopping, beauty and spas, health, lodging and other services. Rankings are based on user votes and what the company describes as interactions on MapQuest.com and external data. MapQuest says mqVibe flags hot spots, places where people and businesses congregate. The website is mqvibe.com. An iPhone app is planned. Denver-based MapQuest is a subsidiary of AOL Inc.

eBay to add mobile image recognition

EBay plans to add image-recognition technolgy to its mobile offerings, allowing shoppers to snap photos of items that an eBay app will match up with similar items for sale on eBay.com. Speaking at eBay Inc.'s X. commerce conference in San Francisco last week, CEO John Donahoe said eBay plans to roll out the feature by year's end. The San Jose, Calif.-based online marketplace operator has not decided which apps get the feature; besides eBay Mobile, the company offers a fashion app and others. It's also not clear if the feature would work for items like clothing and accessories only.