Introducing WhitePages Neighbors ($100 Visa Gift Card Giveaway)

New Survey: Majority of Americans Know Their Neighbors Pets More Than Their Neighbors’ Kids—
Don’t Know Most of Their Neighbors’ First Names, Cell Phone Numbers or Email Addresses

WhitePages “Neighbors” launches today to help people easily find the names and contact information for their neighbors to promote neighborhood spirit, community partnerships and local safety

With all that modern technology offers, we are losing touch with our neighbors.  You know, the people who live next door, across the street, down the road a bit, around the corner?  Yes.  Those people.  White Pages Neighbors is aware of this and trying to help us remedy it- by offering a way for us to locate neighbors close in proximity to our home addresses and sending invites to them with free post cards to a Block Party. 

Block Party!  How fun would that be?  I can remember growing up and even when I was in high school and college people had neighborhood block parties.  I always thought that must be so much fun, although I didn’t get to attend any because we really haven’t ever lived in a ‘neighborhood’ by any stretch of the imagination.  White Pages Neighbors will help you locate neighbors to invite and even print and send postcards just like this one for FREE!

Instead of picking up the phone, pick up a chair and head outside to the front porch- and when a neighbor pops their head out, invite them over for a visit, a glass of lemonade…a game of cards.  Who knows what new friendships may be ready to grow?

Despite the fact that most American adults who have neighbors[1] <#_ftn1> (93%) say it’s important for neighbors to look out for each other’s safety, a new survey conducted online in June 2011 by Harris Interactive on behalf of WhitePages found that more of them can identify most of their neighbors’ cars (47%) than most of their neighbors’ first names (41%) and that more of them (27%) know most of their neighbors’ pets more than most of their neighbors’ kids (24%).

WhitePages sponsored the survey in tandem with the launch of a new product announced today called “Neighbors”, the first neighborhood satellite aerial map of U.S. household contact information, including first and last name, mailing address, associated household members, and phone number to help neighbors more effectively get in touch.

“Whether you need help during an emergency, in planning a block party, or organizing a neighborhood watch committee, all of your neighbors’ contact information is now at your fingertips online for free,” said Alex Algard, CEO of WhitePages. “We’ve spent over 10 years cultivating our local people search database with the most accurate and up to date contact information for nearly every adult in the U.S. and are proud to be able to offer an immersive new viewing mode to help people take a more active part in getting to know and interact with their neighbors.” 

Going beyond making it easy to look up neighbors’ names and contact information, WhitePages has partnered with the National Night Out (NNO) to help neighbors coordinate block parties using the new innovative Block Party Invite and RSVP system offered through WhitePages “Neighbors.” Whether it’s planning a block party for the 28th Annual NNO scheduled for Tuesday, August 2, 2011 or at any other time of people’s choosing, the WhitePages “Neighbors” block party planning tool makes it easy to plan a neighborhood get together with a few clicks without having to worry about tracking down neighbor’s names and contact information by sending personalized postcard invites via the U.S. Postal Service for free. With the survey discovering that 34% of American adults who have neighbors do not feel comfortable asking their neighbors to keep an eye on their home when they go away, WhitePages and NNO hope people will use “Neighbors” Block Party invites to foster relationships that lead to effective neighborhood watch initiatives that promote local safety.

While organizations like National Night Out have initiatives in place to improve relationships between neighbors as the key to keeping people safe, including having over 37 million people participate in its annual event last year, the survey discovered that 54% of American adults who have neighbors said their neighbors never have organized social events together. The survey also found that only 17% said they’ve been inside most of their neighbor’s homes and even fewer (8%) said that they get together on a regular basis or are part of a formal block party safety program in their neighborhood (6%). However, according to the survey, 67% percent of Americans who have neighbors would like to know their neighbors better and 52% would like to get together with their neighbor’s more often.  

“If you look at the 1940s and the 1950s, neighborhoods were safer places because people knew each other. Neighborhoods today are not as tightly knit as they used to be, even with Facebook and other social media tools at their disposal,” said Matt Peskin, Executive Director, National Association of Town Watch and creator of National Night Out. “By making it easier to plan block parties any time of the year with ‘Neighbors,’ WhitePages helps people take a more active part in getting to know and interact with the people who live on their street or at a nearby address, which can help to improve neighborhood spirit, community partnerships, and local safety.”

To use “Neighbors,” visitors go to WhitePages, look for the “Address & Neighbors” header tab and enter their own address and the results will populate with the name, address, phone number, etc. of their immediate neighbors.  Should they want to expand their search beyond their own block, they can enter another address and start searching.  WhitePages “Neighbors” also makes it easy for people to claim, edit and publish their contact information, control settings to let people know the best way to reach them or make their contact information private. 

Offering local contact information for over 90 percent of U.S. adults, WhitePages uses public records and user-generated listings by more than 3 million WhitePages members to offer mapped views and a complete directory of neighbor contact information for nearly every American household. While the survey showed 67% of people believe that it is important to have contact information for their neighbors, only 8% of people have most of their neighbors’ cell phone numbers and only 6% have most of their neighbors’ email addresses. WhitePages Neighbors provides everyone with an opportunity to learn their neighbors names and how to reach them whether it is just to meet them for the first time or in case of an emergency. 

WhitePages Neighbors wants to help YOU throw a Block Party to get to know your neighbors and send you a $100 Visa Gift Card!

 Mandatory Entry: Leave a comment with your name and be sure to leave a valid email address in the comment form.

Extra Entries:

LikeWhitePages Neighbors on Facebook

Join WhitePages Neighbors and look around- tell me something you learned while looking around!

Follow me via RSS Reader or GFC (+1 entry each, up to 2)

Share this giveaway on any social networking site: I just entered to #win $100 #Visa #GiftCard for #WhitePagesNeighbors Block Party from @WhitePages & @mamatomjr http://wp.me/p1qA6G-2AE (up to 4x/day at least 1 hour apart)

Follow Madame Deals, Living on Love and Cents, and A Frugal Chick on Facebook +1 entry/each (leave a comment on their wall mentioning This Mama Loves Her Bargains for an additional entry per comment (+6 possible entries)

This giveaway will end on July 28, 2011 at midnight, EST. US only. Winner to be chosen randomly. Winner has 48 hours to respond to initial contact or new winners will be selected.

I received a gift card in exchange for sharing this post and hosting the giveaway. Opinions expressed within are my own. [ad#glam between posts]