Continuing to back startups in local search, Dave Andonian, managing partner of Dace Ventures, is leading a $7 million Series B round in EveryScape Inc., announced Wednesday. EveryScape is the creator of "The Real World Online," which lets users explore online digital replicas of hotels, restaurants and stores in cities, such as New York, Miami, Steamboat Springs, Colo., and Beijing. EveryScape had previously raised $4 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Draper Fisher New England, Draper Atlantic and LaunchPad Venture Group.

"A large opportunity yet to be really mastered is local search," says Andonian, who learned a thing or two about search engines as chief operating officer for CMGI Inc. [CMGI] from 1997 to 2002, back in the Internet incubator's heyday, when its stock soared and it owned 70 companies, including search pioneer AltaVista Co.

EveryScape's technology is what distinguishes it from the scores of other companies, including Google Inc. with Google Maps Street View, that are trying to develop the online equivalent of the classic Yellow Pages, says Andonian. "EveryScape shows not only the outside of a storefront, but it also allows people through a browser at eye-level view to take a look at a shop, or a restaurant, with hot spots, including menus and user reviews and the ability to make a reservation."

EveryScape's approach is relatively inexpensive, using standard digital cameras to take still photos that are "stitched together to create a 3-D effect, which makes it much easier to update versus sending people out to re-shoot video when, for example, a storefront changes," explains Andonian.

Another startup backed by Andonian that leverages local search is CityVoter, which invites users to vote on the best bagel maker in New York or the best brewpub in Boulder, Colo. The company teams up with media partners, such as local TV stations, to promote the contests. Dace Ventures led the firm's Series A round for an undisclosed amount in September 2006. In the next few weeks, Andonian expects CityVoter will announce a Series B round led by another investor with Dace participating.

Located in Waltham, Mass., Dace invests in early-stage companies and has more than $70 million under management. - Mary Kathleen Flynn

For more on EveryScape and Street View, see March 4 post on VentureBeat