EveryBlock is ChicagoCrime.org on steroids, and it is officially here to change the face of journalism forever.

EveryBlock strives to put data into the hands of citizens down to the block level. It strives to give users a much better portrait of the world around them. From the introductory blog post at EveryBlock:

For a long time, that’s been a tough question to answer. In dense, bustling cities like Chicago, New York and San Francisco, the number of daily media reports, government proceedings and local Internet conversations is staggering. Every day, a wealth of local information is created — officials inspect restaurants, journalists cover fires and Web users post photographs — but who has time to sort through all of that?

Our mission at EveryBlock is to solve that problem. We aim to collect all of the news and civic goings-on that have happened recently in your city, and make it simple for you to keep track of news in particular areas. We’re a geographic filter — a “news feed” for your neighborhood, or, yes, even your block.

The funny thing about both sites is that they are the kind of data that newspapers should have been giving their readers for years on the Web. Why doesn’t the Chicago Tribune do this? It took four people less than a year to build EveryBlock for three major markets — Chicago, San Fransisco and New York.

Founder Adrian Holovaty describes EveryBlock over at Poynter:

EveryBlock filters an assortment of local news by location so you can keep track of what’s happening on your block, in your neighborhood and all over your city. We compile news, we classify it by location/geography, and we present a beautiful, easy-to-use interface that lets people view news in specific locations.

There are two main ways of reading news on EveryBlock — by location and by type. You can search for any address, neighborhood or zip code in the city (more on the city list in a bit), or you can browse by type of information: restaurant inspections, mainstream media articles/blog entries, crimes, building permits, etc.

At its core EveryBlock is a service. Newspapers used to a service too. Perhaps EveryBlock can inspire newspapers to rediscover that core.

Compare EveryBlock to the data ghettos we find at most newspapers sites. EveryBlock takes large amounts of data and presents it in an easy-to-use user interface. Newspapers have largely ignored the importance of a good user interface for years, even though user interfaces are critical to the success of products.

The data doesn’t matter if users can’t figure out what to do with it. I’m sure EveryBlock will be changing in the next few months, but it is already a step forward for journalism, even if it might leave the mainstream media behind.