Hot trends watch: Rotten Neighbor

Got a troublesome neighbor? You are not alone. RottenNeighbor.com, a site where users can sound-off about local area residents whom they're not too happy with, was a hot Google search this morning, clocking in at No. 7 and 12 on the Hot list.

Rotten Neighbor, launched last summer, lets you search by city or ZIP code for all the noisy, annoying and rude neighbors listed in your area. For any given ZIP code, you can get more specific breakdowns of rude metrics, such as noise, safety and appearance.

Individual neighbor reports list the general vicinity of the culprits, a description of the complaint and the number of other users that agreed. In addition to text grievances, you can post videos and photos of ne'er-do-wells caught in the act. The map also displays such neighborhood party poopers as registered sex offenders and foreclosed homes.

Listings near the Los Angeles Times Building include "barking dog" and "psychopath upstairs." 

The site also lets you log reports for good neighbors, which appear in green on the map. However, there aren't yet many commendations listed in Los Angeles (besides the Cunninghams -- great people).  A utility for praising your neighbors somehow doesn't seem quite as useful.

The sudden increased traffic to Rotten Neighbor seems to be taking its toll on the site's servers, causing slow page loads and sometimes error messages. People checking to see if friends, family members or they themselves made the list may have to wait until the stampede dies down.

-- Mark Milian, guest blogger/intern

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