The NYTimes * noted a few weeks ago

In the last five years, full-fledged adults have seemingly given up the telephone — land line, mobile, voice mail and all. According to Nielsen Media, even on cellphones, voice spending has been trending downward, with text spending expected to surpass it within three years.

Email is still my preferred method for communicating long-form communication, for emailing offers and Contracts, HOA packages, etc. But communication has changed is absolutely changing. I’m texting a lot more, texting clients before calling to ensure they have time, Skyping much more frequently, texting via Google Voice (because I can text from the browser).

I learn a lot by observing my daughter and her friends; there is no technological communication besides Facebook, texting and the occasional phone call. I have to text her to check her email … both of which come to her blackberry. Many of my clients find me on facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc.

All of these varied and important communication methods lead to at least one consequence – I need to be able to store and search all forms of communication. I need a pensieve.

So now I’m testing Greplin* – “The Search Bar for your Life” – a tool/service/program/I’m not sure what things are called anymore so I’ll go with “solution” … if they could integrate searching texts and Google Voice, my tech communication search life would be complete. For now.

If you want in invite to Greplin, please contact me.

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Fairview couple builds solar-powered home with help from Google

Many Internet users rely on Google to instantly find information about almost anyone and anything. Philippe and Thao Jeanty went a step further. They used Google to design their solar-powered home in rural Fairview.

“The beauty of Google Sketchup is you can move things around until it looks good. Anything Google does is good. And it’s free,” said Philippe, a physician who practices radiology in Nashville.

Using Google Sketchup, a 3D modeling program usually used by architects, engineers and other design professionals, not homeowners, the couple drew the plans for their home and all of its high-tech, low-environmental-impact features on a computer screen.

Interestingly, the house appears to have cost a not-obscenely-exhorbitant amount and is almost completely off the grid.

via instapundit, via knoxnews.com.

In Charlottesville, you can help Charlottesville Tomorrow model the City of Charlottesville in Google Sketchup. “(Their) goal is to model all of the urban areas of Charlottesville and Albemarle County in Google Earth.”

Take a look at some of the buildings in the City that have already been modeled.

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In a couple weeks, the Houston Association of Realtors will launch a Web application that allows consumers to see which Realtors within their chosen search area are transacting business – and which are not.

Here are the highlights:

• The app is based on MLS data and will be available from the association’s highly-trafficked Website

• Every Realtor in the market is included, there is no opt-out

• The app is map-based, so consumers can see who has sold what, where, over different time periods

• The app may be made available to MLS organizations nationwide

Let that sink in…

A Realtor association is helping consumers make decisions with clarity, on their own, objectively and with no compromise.

Experience matters as does being a full-time Realtor.

In the Charlottesville area, I see geography as less of a differentiator, niches are important, but making a career as a “specialist” would be nearly impossible – there’s no way one could be solely a “Charlottesville condo specialist” – it could be a significant component of one’s business, but the market is just too spread out … but — combine the above with the announcement(s) from Facebook yesterday

Heck, now you could see how many people Like the Realtor you may be considering hiring.

A quick snapshot of your potential Realtor + an instantaneous review of that person or business by your social network? Priceless. (but a snapshot is only that – it doesn’t encapsulate all that goes into a real estate transaction, whether you might like that Realtor …)

So when you click the new “Like” Facebook button, being very helpful and all, Facebook will update your permanent profile with your new like.

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HEEEEEEEELLLLLLLOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THEY UPDATE YOUR PROFILE (your news feed to – but forget that -as of today it’s irrelevant) – the PROFILE of your LIKES!

…

(SIDE NOTE – This also drops Facebook in the middle of the local advertising game – you YELP, you update your facebook PROFILE automatically, I can then create an Ad based on the fact that you “liked” KFC -someone pinch me, I’m still in the dream with Hedi)

People are going to freak out about this and it’s a shame – Facebook does not expose YOUR data specifically – only people who you’ve given permission to as a friend will actually see your profile and I can see this being fantastic way of really keeping in touch – how many of my friends liked “Hurt Locker” for example – that’s the next step of Facebooks evolution, it makes sense. The lads at Facebook GET this.

More on the Houston Association of Realtors’ move at the Real Estate Bloggers.

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- Please, Google, Bring Fiber to Charlottesville!

- Petition to bring Google Fiber to Charlottesville

- City, County and UVA Considering application for ultrafast Google Fiber

But … did you know that Blue Ridge InternetWorks already has laid a bunch of fiber around the City of Charlottesville?

From an Albemarle County press release:

We want Google Fiber in central Virginia!!

Albemarle County, Charlottesville and the University of Virginia are putting in a joint application to bring Google Fiber for Communities to central Virginia, and we are looking for help from the community.

A little background – Google is planning to launch an experiment that they hope will make Internet access better and faster for everyone. They plan to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. These networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today, over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. Google says they will offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.  Google’s goal is to experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better, and faster for everyone. Google plans to pay for the installation of the fiber network with no infrastructure costs to the community.

How will this help our regional community??

According to Google, “ In the same way that the transition from dial-up to broadband made possible the emergence of online video and countless other applications, ultra high-speed bandwidth will drive more innovation – in high-definition video, remote data storage, real-time multimedia collaboration, and others that we cannot yet imagine. It will enable new consumer applications, as well as medical, educational, and other services that can benefit communities. If the Internet has taught us anything, it’s that the most important innovations are often those we least expect.”

As a first step, Google is putting out a Request for Information (RFI) to help identify interested communities. They welcome responses from local government, as well as members of the public.

How can you help make this happen??
Officials from the City, County and University are hoping for an enthusiastic response from the public to help build the case to bring Google Fiber to our community. There are two ways to get involved:  

• First, Albemarle County, Charlottesville and the University of Virginia are jointly submitting a request to Google to be considered for this trial – you can help by filling in this brief survey to provide info that will be helpful in our submittal.http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHdMd2hVVUwtbTQyNFVyYTFQaFFTcVE6MA
• Second, Google is accepting nominations from residents and community groups saying why Google Fiber should come to their area – visit the following link and make your best case for why we should be the selected region, Google has said that community support will be important in making their choice.
  http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/options
• Links to both of these items are posted on the county and city websites, http://www.albemarle.org/googlefiber and www.charlottesville.org

We need to submit our request by March 26, so we need survey responses and community nominations to be submitted by March 22. Even if our community is not selected, this effort will gather important information for future broadband possibilities. Please fill in a survey and nominate our community today!

(when they’re asking for something for free)

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Dear Charlottesville municipalities – sign up for Google Broadband! http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi

I read on …

Google is planning to launch an experiment that we hope will make Internet access better and faster for everyone. We plan to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. Our networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We’ll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

From now until March 26th, we’re asking interested municipalities to provide us with information about their communities through a Request for information (RFI), which we’ll use to determine where to build our network.

Google goes big. Nearly every single time … but will they bring fiber to Charlottesville?

Update 23 February 2010: It seems that UVA, Albemarle and Charlottesville can cooperate.

Charlottesville, Albemarle County and the University of Virginia are considering making a joint application for a pilot program that would install fiber-optic cable allowing for broadband speeds up to 100 times faster than what the community currently enjoys.

Update 24 February 2010: Charlottesville City Councilor Dave Norris is asking for the public’s help in getting Google’s attention.

More at the Wall Street Journal

From TechCrunch:

Google owns its own vast network of dark fiber around the globe to connect its data centers, speed up search, and lower its cost of streaming billions of videos a month on YouTube. With this project, Google is taking its first step in connecting that fiber backbone to consumer’s homes. It is not clear what Google services will come with a broadband subscription, but it is a safe bet that Google will be the default search and Gmail will be the default email. Maybe they can throw in Google Voice service and an Android phone that lets you talk over WiFi.

Charlottesville has been consistently rated as a top “Digital City” and while I think it’s a bit of a silly designation, why don’t we capitalize and leverage this?

For the sixth year in a row, the Center for Digital Government has ranked the City of Charlottesville as one of the Top Ten Digital Cities in America.

So what say you, Charlottesville and Albemarle governments??? This is something on which you really, really, really should collaborate and cooperate.

Tell the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and the City of Charlottesville City Council your thoughts.

From Google:

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I just got off the phone (although I have Skype, too) with a client overseas who had been questioning whether the railroad near the Belvedere development was abandoned. She answered her own question when she said, “I’m looking at it now, and it appears that it’s still in use – there aren’t any weeds growing over the tracks.”

I know I’m a “tech savvy Realtor” and all, but that statement still blows me away, as does the fact that Bing is winning the mapping race in Charlottesville right now.

This year I have worked with a fair number of international buyers, and my tools to work with them have become better and more efficient. Working with overseas buyers is something I enjoy for a variety of reasons; more on this in another post.

Look at the clarity and the timeliness – Google shows Belvedere as all trees versus Bing’s showing the clearing. Google wins the “share-ability” segment of the competition … that’s why I have taken screenshots which you can blow up.

Belvdere and the Fairview Swim Club on Bing:

And now Google -

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View Larger Map

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Agent Genius, the national real estate news magazine, launched two new features/branches this morning – AG Sphere and AG News – If you’re a consumer curious about what some of the best and brightest real estate minds have to say, or if you’re in real estate and want to learn about real estate trends, technology, mortgage news, even finding a local real estate professional and general movements within the industry, check them out.

*Disclaimer: I am honored to be one of the writers at AG, but that doesn’t influence how impressed I am by what they continue to do.

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Have you ever looked at a photo and wondered what was beyond its edges – just what was left of that castle or what the facade of Notre Dame looks like from close up? We certainly have, which is why I’m happy to tell you about a new feature we’ve just introduced for Panoramio, Google’s site for sharing geo-tagged photos.

Panoramio enables photographers to geo-locate, store and organize their photographs and to view those images in their geographic context. You may already have seen photos from the Panoramio layer while zooming around in Google Earth or Google Maps (just click the “more” button), but have you visited the Panoramio website? Now, when browsing photos on the site you can explore multiple images of a particular location in a more seamless way.

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I only wish we could integrate this into the MLS … but we’re relatively limited in the photos we can upload and then we’d likely run into the “you can’t have your own branding!” issues … Google’s (etc’s) flexibility in this arena may be one of the downfalls of the MLS as we know it. (and that might not be a bad thing)

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- If I’m in a meeting with my laptop open and my phone rings with number I do not recognize, I’ll quickly Google the number (it’s amazing how many Realtors’ cell phone numbers aren’t found via Google) – if it’s a client and it’s important, I’ll likely leave the meeting* to take the call.

- If the “person” calling shows up on whocalled.us or whocallsme.com – there is a very small chance that I will answer.

- Frequently I’ll Google someone’s email address – and it’s amazing how effective this can be.

Google me – with or without quotes.

I expect to be Googled.

*I love volunteering and working on various Realtor committees – they bring value to my business in a variety of ways – but if a client calls while I am in Strategic Planning for the Virginia Association of Realtors, my and my clients’ Strategic Plans come first.

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With the recent talk of how forthcoming data standards are going to make property data sharing more efficient and thus better for consumers and Realtors, here is one of my requests -

I’d love to see a (Google) Mashup (or the MLS would be even better, and I think a no-brainer) providing an overlay of school districts. Albemarle County School Districts are here and the City of Charlottesville’s school districts are here. Even better, make it so that registered users could make their own pages with all their important locations to help them organize their thoughts and help their Realtor representatives better understand their thoughts and thought processes.

But here’s a problem – Albemarle’s maps are PDFs and the City’s districts are encased in a Java-heavy page. What’s the solution?

The number I have heard of common fields to be shared is around fourteen – methinks there’s some work to be done with this. I could think of fourteen fields pretty quickly …

Price, address/lat-long/parcel ID, bedrooms, baths, living room, dining room, fireplace, pool, garage, lot size, view, fenced yard?, flooring type?, room locations, laundry?, paved?

Ok, that’s 16 from a stream-of-consciousness, but you get my point.

From a consumer point of view – what are the most important pieces of data that help you get an initial picture of the property?

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Today, your GOOG-411 experience just got better: during your call to GOOG-411, just say “map it”, and you’ll get a text message with the details of your search plus a link to a map of your results right on your mobile phone.

Having the information texted to my phone was mighty useful. This is even better.

We may never need to implant RFID chips into our shoulders. Google will already know where we are and where we’ve been and probably predict where we’re going next (before we know ourselves).

Technorati Tags: google

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The Difference between good Realtors and bad agents

Buying a new construction home? Bring your own tape!

Housing Starts rebound (national) … but building permits are down (PDF)

Zillow uses their prominence to discuss eminent domain. Good for them, and thank you.

A Super Wal-Mart in Greene? But … they expect people to consistently show up for work. Who wants to work there? I kid. If they would just open a Super-Walmart in Greene and close down the one in Charlottesville …

More home loans go sour – yet some lenders continue to loosen lending standards

Ten Innovations that will reduce the amount of energy we use

You think Google’s not benefiting from Trulia’s growth?

… Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia … showing me his referer logs, and they definitely show that Google sends more traffic his way than any other search engine. … Courtesy of Robert Scoble.

Finally, listening to CNBC this morning, Joe Kernen said referencing the inability to compete with Google – “Google are going to be the government, not a company.”

Technorati Tags: real estate, realtor.com, trulia, zillow

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Mold -vs- asbestos -vs- radon

National real estate websites

Blog -vs- RSS -vs- Podcast

Charlottesville -vs- Albemarle

MLS -vs- FSBO – interestingly, all of the top cities are from Canada.

In essence, Google Trends gives another means by which to present one’s argument with one’s own manipulation of statistics.

Technorati Tags: google trends

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