What is Zillow up to?
First, I read on their blog about how they will be, a la Trulia, offering brokers the ability to upload their listings via feeds. Then I see that Zillow pulled a mini-coup hiring Vanessa Fox from Google. I still think that Google will buy one…
Google’s domination continues
The messages may be mixed, but the intent seems to be focused: "Total Global Domination". What do you do online that's not touched by Google? (this post not related to the local real estate market, other than at some point Google may have all the…
Google analytics gets more user-friendly
Read about it at the Google blog and the Google Analytics blog. I look forward to (hopefully) emailing my listing clients the traffic that is being generated for their listings, among other reports. Technology is great; using technology productively is often an entirely different conversation.…
Belvedere groundbreaking today
I'll bet the presentation was nice. Their website certainly is, and their product should be as well. But ... with the throngs (ok, about a hundred people) waiting, the principal didn't show up until 10:35, at which time I had to leave to meet clients…
Monday links – 9 April 2007
Freakonomics' take on Zillow, Google etc. One of my favorite comments: Google and the other big players have a very long term view of this service, while the everyday realtor doesn’t think more than 45 days out. Combine the different business goals with increased competition…
One of the things about Google I don’t like
With all the talk about Google's winning the battle of real estate search, the thing that irks me the most is the consensus that their victory is inevitable. Without competition, complacency reigns. Witness the fragmentation and loss of relevance that MLS's are experiencing. I'm not…
Top 5 stories of 2007
The top 5 stories on this blog from the past year - Zillow steps it up - Zillow is just "hot" What I want in a real estate website - It worked; now I have most of what I was looking for. Google and Zillow…
Monday links 12-11-2006
An "optimal" population in Albemarle's future? What do the surrounding counties think about this? What happens when X number is reached? Conversation in Harrisonburg. C'ville has had the occasional blogger meetup, and this seems quite intriguing. Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, Propsmart, google base - in Google…
UVA library and Google
All the time I spent in Alderman Library's stacks in high school ... now Google is going to have all the books. Google will digitize hundreds of thousands of books from the Library, including selected portions of the Library's American history, literature, and humanities works…
What is the future of the MLS?
In a meeting yesterday, someone remarked how much I have been writing recently on the MLS. It's true. I do not intend to bore readers, but this has been a very hot topic of late, and I am fascinated by the direction of the MLS…