Today we’re rolling out two new extensions of outside.in: a neighborhood news widget and a special streamlined version of outside.in customized for the iPhone. The widget is dead simple to configure: visit this page, and enter your zip code along with any specific topic you want to focus on, and you’ll see a preview of how the widget will look on your blog. Once you’ve got a configuration that works well for you, just cut and paste the javascript into your blog sidebar and you’re ready to go.

The iPhone app (which should work on most mobile devices that have a browser) is a variation on the same theme: select a zip code or a city, filter by topic if you choose, and you’ll see a quick overview of the latest news and conversation from that area.

It’s a simple application, and we’re going to be enhancing it in the next few weeks (once we get our hands on an iPhone!), but even now we think it does something that up to now was impossible to do on a mobile device. Yes, there are a number of services out there that let you search for nearby restaurants or bars from a mobile phone. But what if you’re looking for something less specific than that? What if you’re visiting a new neighborhood and you want to know what the latest buzz is in that community — what the locals are obsessing about? You can get a list of Chinese restaurants, but it’s almost impossible to get a feel for a new place without going up and talking to strangers and learning about the place via word-of-mouth.

Now, we’re all for talking to strangers (at least some of the time), but we think outside.in on a mobile device is a great way of extending that kind of conversation. Type in a zip code and you can instantly get a read on what the neighborhood has been buzzing about. And maybe then when you do strike up that conversation with a local, you’ll have something to talk about.