EveryBlock, which was first launched in 2008 as an address-based news feed, has been redesigned as a “community-empowered” site.

EveryBlock has been developed so that people can make connections with those living nearby and then share news stories, crime reports and events. It is only available in 16 US cities at the moment but the relaunched version of EveryBlock has expansion on the horizon.

As Mashable reports, EveryBlock has partnered with Groupon in the US for revenue and has plans to integrate Foursquare‘s API in order to make further connections between neighbours with similar tastes and habits.

“We’re shifting from a one-way newsfeed to more of a community-empowered website,” says EveryBlock founder Adrian Holovaty. “Instead of going to the site to passively consume information, we’re going to offer a platform for posting messages to your neighbors, to discover who lives near you.”

10,000 Words looks at what the redesign, which includes badge incentives and ‘following’, tells us about the future of hyperlocal sites:

“Following” is the new “liking”: Crucial to Everyblock’s redesign is the functionality of the “Follow” button; users can now follow blocks, zipcodes and even specific businesses. A “Get to Know Your Neighbors” sidebar displays links to the profiles of users who follow the same places that you do, making it super easy to meet new people with similar interests.