Mike's Mic - With Giovanni Galluchi of Viewzi.Com

If you think the category of search has reached it creative peak, think again. There are some really impressive people out there working on ways to improve what is arguably the most used feature of the web. If you find yourself frustrated with the way your search results are delivered, you're not alone. Enter a new category....Visual Search. Viewzi.Com has been created as means of creating unique "views" of search results. You may prefer to see the results of your searches in a different context than others do. Viewzi's goal is to develop a platform that allows you to view results other than "pages full of blue links". Giovanni uses some great analogies explaining the application of this context and the unique way in which they plan to open the development of "view" based search to anyone with the chops and time to code it. As we discuss in the interview, this opens up a tremendous opportunity for the real estate vertical to create customized search views that can be added to their web marketing efforts. How do you see sites like Viewzi improving the real estate search experience? In the near future I will be speaking with another company working on ways to improve the experience of search. Stay tuned.
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Attention REBloggers: CREST Survey #2

The Center for Real Estate and Social Technologies (CREST) released the results of their first survey at REBarcamp recently and they revealed some interesting information about blogging within the real estate vertical (view the results here). The second survey delves a little deeper to find out which social media tools are being used to enhance blogging efforts. I think if CREST can get a good cross section of participation in these surveys it could go a long way toward helping the industry craft some meaningful educational and reference materials for beginning bloggers. Participants in the survey will be able to receive the executive summary when it is released. Deadline for this survey is on Aug 21st.


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REBlog World - Podcast w/ Todd Carpenter

BlogWorld is the world's largest conference expo dedicated to blogging. When Todd Carpenter and Jason Berman attended the event last year they were amazed at the size and diversity of the event. They were also amazed that Real Estate was a vertical woefully under represented. The idea to team up with the folks at Blog World was hatched and the result is REBlogWorld. Here's a snippet from the BlogWorld site.

If you blog, dabble in new media, are a full time digital communications junkie ... or just dream of getting your feet wet in this phenomenon with a 6,000% growth rate ... you have to be at BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas, September 20 & 21, 2008. Join more than 4 million bloggers who know this industry is going to continue to grow ... and want play an active role. Don't be left behind ... attend the show to secure and further your stake in the Blogosphere!

REBlogWorld is co-located with BlogWorld and will take place on September 19th in Las Vegas. Todd and Jason have pulled together a stellar crew of speakers and topics. If you're a real estate blogger you will not want to miss it. The price of admission gets you into the entire Blog World event and from what I've heard about last year's show it's worth every penny. I'll be on a real estate video panel with my new friend Morgan Brown from The Blown Mortgage Blog and Turn Here and my old friend Daniel Rothamel, aka The Real Estate Zebra. I spent some time with Todd to produce a podcast interview that should answer any questions you have about REBlogWorld. Check it out below. I hope to see you in Vegas next month!



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Attention Video Bloggers and Vlogging Wannabes

Reggie and Nik-Nik at My Tech Opinion are conducting a contest with some great prizes to see who has the best video blogging chops. I have accepted their invitation to be one of the judges along with The Facilitator, The Striped Crusader and the Queen of Personality. What is Vlogging? Basically it's a blog post done via video instead of text. In other words, it's usually someone sitting in front of camera saying what could typically be said in a blog post.

Personally, I think video blogging is a great idea, but only if you are using the medium to impart a message you couldn't otherwise write about. If it needs a visual cue, video is a great way to blog it. Maybe you're introducing a new tech gadget you want the world to see. You might be at a specific event like an open house, a town hall meeting, grand opening or more. Maybe you were planning on writing a post about the new park in town. If you're comfortable enough behind the lens, set up your camera at the park and go for it! I'm really looking forward to the entries. This should be fun. Set up your web cam or camcorder and submit your entry soon!

It's Hotter In Houston - BarCamp Slated For August 9th

The Houston Technology Center will play host to a BarCamp taking place August 9th. The early volunteers and organizers of REBarcamp Houston will be in attendance to get ideas and meet the folks who are putting together the event. There is a pre-camp survey on line that will be used to help shape the sessions. My interests are in mobile app development and what we can do collectively to raise the profile of Houston as a tech destination. Austin is great, but we have more than our share of Geek Elite right here in H-Town.

I'm looking foward to participating in the sessions and learning all we can to help make REBCH a big success. Carson Coots has been working hard on the official site and it is outstanding! Stay tuned for the launc.

If you're interested joining us for the day, dm me on twitter (@mlbroadcast).

Podcast Interview: DiamondDwellings.Com

The folks in attendance at this years SF Inman Connect event seemed a little more engaged than usual. They also seemed a bit more genuine with regard to their desire to wrap their minds around the new rules and new tools of real estate. I had the opportunity to meet with a few people developing some fairly unique concepts. Among them is an affable guy named Matt Fagioli. We've connected briefly in the RE.net prior to the events. He showed up to REBarcamp and Inman with an energy and passion that was very contagious.

Matt is in the process of launching a new brokerage model called Diamond Dwellings. His concept is to provide area market leaders with a best-of-breed platform that takes full advantage of Web 2.0 while still implementing the best of what he affectionately refers to as "old school" marketing.

I had the opportunity to follow up with Matt and one of his agents, Lane Bailey today via audio podcast. Lane did a great job of extending his social networking chops into the events that took place in SF last week. Take a few minutes to listen to the interview and if you have questions contact Matt, he strikes me as a real straight shooter who will give it everything he has to ensure the success of the professionals that get on board with his program.

I promised Matt we would do a follow up interview next month to see where they stand with their program. Stay tuned!

Check out the interview here:

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