NEW YORK, March 19 -- HopStop.com, the most used site for mass transit directions in the United States, announced today the beta launch of HopStop AdLocal, the first location-based hyper-local advertising platform of its kind.

Local businesses in New York City, Boston, Washington D.C., Chicago and San Francisco now have an affordable and effective online advertising product to target customers in proximity to their businesses.

Small business owners can go to Hopstop.com/adlocal to create a cost effective, location targeted campaign. All they need to do is set the target address(es), which can be their business location, rival businesses' locations or any street address frequented by their target customer, and then select a distance around the address(es) they want to target. The small business can then follow the step by step instructions to create a local ad or coupon instantly on HopStop.com. They also have the ability to upload images, change the background colors of their ad as well as include their website and physical address.

By creating a self-service, easy to use and automated system HopStop has now made it possible for any small business owner to target local customers in a new and more effective way than ever before.

CEO and Founder of HopStop.com, Chinedu Echeruo says "Small businesses care about location but yet very few online advertising platforms are geared toward the very specific hyper- local needs of local merchants. We believe AdLocal will bring effective advertising to small businesses in way that makes sense to them. We've already seen significant interest in HopStop AdLocal by small businesses in just a few days after the beta launch of the product."

About HopStop: HopStop.com currently provides bus, subway and walking directions for New York City, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco and parts of New Jersey. HopStop hopes to add 10 more cities by the end of 2007 and was recently named one of the "50 Coolest Websites" by Time Magazine.

www.HopStop.com