Comments on: Street View in Charlottesville

By: Daniel Strickland

Daniel Strickland — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 02:45:30 +0000

Pavel: Yes, CurbPlaces data is the result of a partnership with a local real estate agent (which we describe on our About page). I am not involved your committee discussions, but as far as I know, there is nothing stopping Zillow from doing the same thing. In my experience, lengthy discussions in any committee meeting are often a waste of time…

By: Pavel Dovgalyuk

Pavel Dovgalyuk — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:39:41 +0000

I wonder what’s stopping a site like Zillow or Trulia from getting the same FTP data from CAAR by using the same means of gathering data as CurbPlaces does. There is so much discussion about “giving data” to Zillow, but CurbPlaces already has 100% of the IDX data. Is it because a local real estate agent is behind CurbPlaces? If not, I don’t see why Zillow and the likes couldn’t follow CurbPlaces’ model and our lengthy discussions in CAAR committees are just a waste of time.

By: Daniel Strickland

Daniel Strickland — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:41:32 +0000

Thanks for the explanation. I agree that the rules don’t really seem to take into account something like CurbPlaces. However, we are really trying to be above-board with our use of data – even as we explore Curbplace’s business model.

If you have any specific concerns or suggestions for our use of the data, please let me know. We’ve had conversations with David Phillips as well.

One change we’ve recently made: we added the “Advertise with CurbPlaces” link under every paid advertising banner to further distinguish them on the page from actual real estate data.

I look forward to updates as CAAR works through what to do about the Internet…

By: Jim Duncan

Jim Duncan — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:42:02 +0000

Also, some want to see a return to a control of data – which is a moot point, in my opinion. I love the innovation and “stuff” that you’re doing – don’t get me wrong -

By: Jim Duncan

Jim Duncan — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:32:46 +0000

There are concerns being raised about the lack of sufficient disclosure on the page and the use of IDX data on your site. CAAR is still working through them, as our IDX rules were written before the internet had really started to do its thing. A lot of the questions are based on fear of the unknown and fear of loss of control.

By: Daniel Strickland

Daniel Strickland — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:26:20 +0000

Thanks for the comment Jim.

What questions about the IDX display are you referring to? We currently have an account with the CAAR / MLS and download the IDX data straight from the CAAR FTP site the way it is supposed to be. The CurbPlaces (unless I’m missing something) follow all the CAAR rules for display and usage of IDX as well.

We used to simply scrape data from the mycaar area, but have since moved away from that to make sure all our data was as accurate and legitimate as possible.

Are there still other questions about how we use IDX?