I got a note last week about a new Web site that lists businesses that are kid-friendly. At the moment it only focuses on thirteen major geographic areas, including Phoenix, Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, New York City, Washington DC, Atlanta, Orlando and Miami. You can get results from other areas, but they won’t be comprehensive. (The site does plan to expand to over 25 markets by the end of the year.)

Still with me? Great. The site allows you to search by city/state, or by zip code with a mile radius. You specify what category you want (hotels, kid-friendly restaurants, afterschool activities, shopping, camps, etc) or search by keyword.

I searched for kid-friendly restaurants in Phoenix. I got 27 results, mostly from chains. The result lists shows the name of the establishment and the address, but not the phone number. Clicking on the name gives you a little additional information including the phone number, and an option to download the menu. (The menu is in PDF format.)

This is a quick way to narrow down on places that are more kid-friendly, but I found myself missing information on local shops (I seemed to find a lot of chains), and more information on the individual location pages. And why not embed the maps right on the individual location page, instead of in a pop-up window?