May 7th, 2010

Weekly Roundup

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

• Meet the new face of search (via Mint Factory):

“Major changes to the Google interface focused on user experience and easier search management. The New Google interface has been designed to greatly reduce time that average user spends before reaching relevant content they’ve been looking for.”

• Five ways to give Gen X and Gen Y clients what they want (via Inman):

“…today’s buyers and sellers don’t want to have to register to receive property information. Nor do they want to reveal who they are to a Realtor who may ‘drip’ them, call them, or pursue them about buying or selling before they are ready to proceed.”

• Google Latitude clocks 3 million active users, passing FourSquare and MyTown (via TechCrunch):

“Lee said that one reason it took some time for Latitude to take off was that there hasn’t been very good iPhone support. The iPhone is key for a lot of location services. The majority of users of Foursquare and all of MyTown users are on the iPhone (or iPod touch/iPad), for example.”

• Teresa Boardman argues that you won’t find quick sales on social media outlets (via Inman):

“Using social media to grow a business is like farming. When I first started as a Realtor, new Realtors were encouraged to farm a geographic area. This was to be done in conjunction with open houses, cold calling and various other methods of getting business. We were told that agents often fail and throw money away when they farm a geographic area by sending postcards or trinkets, because they don’t stick with it long enough. Giving up too soon is like throwing money away. The idea is to keep hitting the same area and get listings and leverage those listings to get more business.”

Tags: Google, Google homepage, Google Latitutde, real estate social media, social media.

February 5th, 2010

Weekly Roundup

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

In case you missed it, here are some great reads from the worlds of technology and real estate:

• You’ve certainly heard a lot about the iPad, but here is the official demo video (via Mashable):

“Even though the Apple iPad won’t be available for another 60 or 90 days (depending on the model), Apple already has its official iPad website up and running. In addition to showing off some of the applications, features and design and technical specifications, the website also features an eight-minute video with Apple’s design and development team discussing the device and showing it off.”

• A collaboration portal for architects that won’t even require you to spare a dime:

“Coming soon in the first of the year Architecture 5¢.com is going to become the hub where Architects and clients can come to talk to one another. A place where architects from all over can talk to each other and collaborate. A place to show your work, talk to home owners, answer questions, and most importantly help you get back to work.”

• Real Estate CEOs are more positive about improving market conditions this year than in 2009 (via REALTOR® Mag):

“The 110 members of the Real Estate Executive Roundtable are more positive about their industry in the first quarter of 2010 than they were in 2009 with the sentiment index at 73, up from 63 in the fourth quarter of 2009. The sentiment index measures confidence in real estate market conditions. However, a common concern of respondents is the employment picture.”

• Foreclosure filings jumped in Las Vegas, which had the largest number of foreclosure filings of any city last year (via CNN/Money):

“In cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Miami and Bakersfield, Calif., soaring home prices of the mid 2000s drove homebuyers to desperate measures, such as taking on hybrid adjustable rate mortgages, also called toxic ARMS. These products only remained affordable as long as home prices grew; once prices stopped rising, borrowers began to default.”

• The buzz about Google mapping just went from Street View to Store View (via Search Engine Land):

“I received a tip from a New York retailer named Oh Nuts, that Google came to their store to take pictures for a new Google Maps product named “Google Store Views.” I was told that they took pictures of the inside of the store, every 6 feet, in all directions. They also took pictures of products. Google Store Views will allow people to essentially walk into the store, off of Google Street Views. ”

Tags: foreclosures, Google, Google Store View, iPad, Las Vegas real estate.

November 20th, 2009

Weekly Roundup

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

The best mobile apps of the future, going green beats being blue, a perspective on Google listings, and more in this week’s Roundup.

• A look at how information providers (like us!) are reshaping the MLS community (via Inman):

“With consumers now expecting to see a comprehensive set of for-sale listings, agents, brokerages, multiple listing services and third-party aggregators are seeking to differentiate themselves from their competitors by pulling onto their Web sites anything and everything from the growing universe of information that might conceivably be connected with a home purchase.”

• Can green properties impact employee health and productivity? A new CB Richard Ellis/U of San Diego study thinks so (via Hot Property Blog):

“A new study found that tenants in green buildings experience increased productivity and fewer sick days. The research also found that that green buildings have lower vacancy rates and higher rents than non-green counterparts.”

• ReadWriteWeb profiles the top 10 mobile applications of 2012 according to Gartner:

“For many of the categories on this list, there are a number of mobile apps that are already available today. But what Gartner makes clear is that we’re just getting started when it comes to their use.”

• Google is incorporating listings into map applications (via 1000Watt blog):

“Forget the RPR. If you’re interested in the future of real estate, you need to be watching Google closely these days. A couple weeks ago we noted the company’s move to include a real estate overlay on Google Maps, which put listings smack-dab in front of millions of Google users who likely had no idea the company has spent the last several years quietly aggregating this content.”

Tags: Google, green properties, listings, MLS, mobile applications.

November 13th, 2009

Weekly Roundup

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

There is certainly a lot of conversation brewing in San Diego, so I will give your tired Friday eyes and ears a break from the three-letter acronyms most confused with four-letter words. That’s right folks, no RPR, MLS, NAR, VOW, or IDX till next week!

• Slate argues newspapers aren’t dying as many assume:

“For the last few years, the most serious problem facing print has been the sharp drop in advertising revenues. (Many chunks of the media world have been initiated into the 40 percent club.) But newspapers aren’t continuing to spend money as if it’s 2003 and hoping that Craigslist will disappear. No, they’re planning for survival by slashing costs sharply, trying to boost online advertising, and, here’s the clincher, making people pay more for the product.”

• Google is preparing to speed up page load time by up to 55% (via Gizmodo):

“Google’s working on a new application-layer protocol dubbed SPDY (pronounced “SPeeDY”) which is intended to improve how content is transported over the web.”

• Rupert Murdoch doesn’t think too highly of searchers, and is considering a paid subscription model (via The Business Insider):

“Earlier in the interview, he says he has to charge for his sites because there are ‘no news websites or blog websites anywhere in the world making serious money.’ In his opinion, ‘there’s not enough advertising in the world.’”

• Glenn Roberts Jr. advocates for drawing a line for business vs. personal communications (via Inman):

“And as social media blurs the line between personal conversations and business communications, companies and groups within the real estate industry and in other industries are working to define the gray areas and draw clear lines about what’s acceptable and what’s not. Adding to the urgency are FTC-proposed guidelines, scheduled to take effect Dec. 1, 2009, that relate to proper vs. improper use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising — and extend to new forms of media such as blogs.”

Tags: Google, newspaper industry, Rupert Murdoch, social media, SPDY.

October 30th, 2009

Weekly Roundup

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

GPS navigation was forever shaken, Smartphone users dominate, and more from our staff’s favorite reads.

• AdMob releases their annual Mobile Metrics Report, profiling mobile use and the shift toward Smartphones:

“Among the devices making the heaviest use of the mobile web are the iPhone and its non-smartphone counterpart, the iPod Touch. The data traffic created by these two handhelds has increased 19 times from September 2008 to this past month and now accounts for 43% of all smartphone requests worldwide.”

• Google shakes the GPS navigation industry overnight (via Gizmodo):

“This is not an attack of Google’s business practices, but an explanation of the sort of destructive innovation that has made them so huge so fast. (It’s also a warning to consider carefully any entities that gets this strong, especially if you plan on going into business with one.) Though predecessors like Microsoft experienced similar explosive growth, and grew a similar sudden global dependence, we’ve never seen the likes of Google. The GPS business isn’t the only one that will be consumed by its mighty maw before it’s had its run.”

• NYTimes’ Living In section explores the Castleton Corners neighborhood of Staten Island, using Onboard data:

“Single-family homes predominate; the vast majority of them are detached and have garages. Colonials outnumber Tudors and ranches, and many have at least some brick on the exterior and date back before World War II. A small number of town houses are scattered through the neighborhood, too.”

• Google Maps enhances its July launch of real estate listings with rental searches, among other tools:

“We’ve made it easier to find real estate listings. Now, you can simple select ‘Real Estate’ from the ‘More’ button on the top firhg tof any Google Map to discover listings. From there, it’s a simple matter to refine your search using the left hand panel – price, bedrooms, bathrooms and so on. Of course, you can still pan the map to search for the perfect neighborhood and it’ll automatically update with more listings.”

• Our own Patrick Healy made it to Roost’s 50 Real Estate People to Follow on Twitter

Tags: Google, Google Maps, GPS, mobile technology, population data, Roost, Twitter.