About Shirlz
The Site
Shirlz is an online city directory covering local companies in various cities. The key goal of the site is to help people find locations and information on a variety of companies within a city. Our data base records over millions of companies within Canada as of 2010. This is beneficial for locals and tourists who needs help finding variety of businesses in a destined location.
By adding certain features not available on most directory sites like business ratings, picture galleries and operating hours we hope to not only help located places for people, but to guide them to the right places. Providing sufficient information on businesses new to the audience is the key.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide the most comprehensive city guide for online users to find places offline. Provide sufficient information for users to understand places they will be attending.
The Community
Shirlz is completely community driven, meaning business information, reviews, and ratings are provided by the users. Everybody has an equal chance to rate, review and express themselves unless they are proven not to be worthy. Unless the user has constant negative activity on the site they are allowed to use as much of the service as the next user (assuming the next user is not abusing the system as well).
Using Shirlz is completely free of charge and requires no membership. Those who do signup can benefit from the user point system, faving places, and watching other users. In other words, all your activities can be tracked and easily managed.
The rating system allows moderators to determine user's placement on the site. It is simple - the more contribution, the higher the rating. Higher ratings can helps your postings and requests get pushed out sooner. In conflicted situations moderators may also look at your rating. Yes, users can have a negative rating.
The Story
Shirlz was in development since 2008. In mid-2009 the site was launched into a beta testing which started from Vancouver. The site officially launched for Canada in early 2011. The beta testing has worked out the site's bugs and glitches and ability to scale for a larger audience.
The site is continuously growing but only with the effort of the users. We won't know what you want; thus, by telling us directly we can make changes to cater to you. Feel free to contact us and spill your mind.
Shirlz is also in partner with company uGulp, a food driven directory website. In most cases the platform and system is shared but user accounts and information is kept separate.
