Web 2.0 - The Bypass to Information Highway Roadblocks

News.Com Released an article last Friday from the Inman Connect conference entitled "Real Estate's Net Turf War".

"Now the nation's approximately 2 million real estate brokers, who have seen their incomes balloon as housing prices have climbed toward the sky in recent years, fear they're next in line for what academics like to call "disintermediation."

Are there 2 million real estate brokers? Where did that figure come from? My advice? If you're a broker or agent, do your own due diligence on this issue. When you realize you're the one in control of your own data and destiny, start thinking about innovative ways to distribute it on behalf of your clients. Build new business models that are innovative, and customized to your local market and its demographics. Web 2.0 tools are making it easier than ever to define a niche and build a business around it. It's not a war, it's a free market economy that offers unlimited opportunity for those who are creative enough to look at it that way. I was going to post some more about the conference, but the guys at Realty Thoughts did the work already. Check out their blog posts and videos regarding the sessions etc.

Inman Connect

UPDATE 7/29 - Just got back in from the Inman Connect conference in San Francisco. I met so many great people I will probably miss thanking some of them for their time and hospitality, so to all of you, and you know who you are, Gracias Mi Amigos. There are some pretty cool things going on in the real estate technology space, however, I was somewhat disappointed at the progress that has been since my last visit to one of these events about 6 years ago. I will say that the spirit of cooperation and the business models of some of the new companies were refreshing and I am looking forward to blogging on the them soon.

For A Few Dollars More

The sequel to a Fist Full Of Dollars has been released. Joel over at the Future of Real Estate Marketing blog, (my favorite real estate blog) has a post about Zillow's new infusion of Vulture*Venture Capital. A comment on the post got me to thinking about the past again. It's going to be interesting to see how NAR, Cendant and other majors decide if they are going to spin this. I know at a broker level there have been some rumblings and some paranoia or as it was described in the comment on Joel's blog, "Zillonoia". In days past there were quite a few instances of the "The Sky Is Falling" messages being used to warn the troops that the data pirates were coming. Does anyone remember "The Lion Over The Hill" thread that started in 1995 and carried it's way through to the dot bomb timeline? Do a search in Realty Times and you'll find some old articles that reference it. It was hard to keep track of who was the biggest perceived threat back then, It moved around from "Two Kids in a Garage" to Bill Gates and everything in between so often that the average agent or broker had no idea how many people not to trust. I had to stop in the middle of searching for old articles on the subject because the wayback machine was starting to upset my stomach. Looks like history may be doomed to repeat itself with this and the real or perceived attacks on commissions. I'm holding out hope that enough people in the business have learned from it to keep their eye on the ball and not expend too much energy on spoon fed doses of paranoid rhetoric. Mistakes of the past are some of the best tools to use in creating a new business model. What's most intriguing to me this time around is the quality of the resources at hand by even the smallest player on the field. If I were an agent or broker I would have a fearless attitude about it. I wouldn't ignore it, but I wouldn't burn up a bunch of good karma on the sequel.

*I better be careful, I may need some of this some day:)

A Tale of Tails

Anyone that knows me is aware of the fact that I rarely follow the herd. Runaway best sellers in the world of business publications usually leave me a bit nonplussed as to how they deserve the status (that statement in itself is a good reason to read this book). Every now and then someone really, really gets it. Not since the "Cluetrain Manifesto" has a book been able to codify how the web is affecting commerce at all levels. Enter "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. In 1997 I had what one could say was a pre-cursor to a blog. I was working with an ISP that also had a web development division. We did some groundbreaking work with regards to early web advertising and interactive media, as a result I had a personal web site called the Internet Marketing Guide (real original huh?). I remember writing an article about the oxymoronic concept of mass customization. It was apparent to me that the web would change the way consumers would buy products and even came up with a few ideas that in retrospect I should have figured out a way to capitalize on (ah, 20/20 hindsight, what a time waster). The Long Tail uses unprecedented data from several sources to validate the theory. If you're considering the implementation of a Web 2.0 product or concept and wondering if you're taking a really big leap of faith, this book should help you feel better about your chances of making it over the chasm.

Search 2.0

Just found an interesting post on ReadWriteWeb about the future of search.

"* First-generation search ranked sites based on page content - examples are early yahoo.com and Alta Vista.
* Second-generation relies on link analysis for ranking - so they take the structure of the Web into account. Examples are Google and Overture.
* Third-generation search technologies are designed to combine the scalability of existing internet search engines with new and improved relevancy models; they bring into the equation user preferences, collaboration, collective intelligence, a rich user experience, and many other specialized capabilities that make information more productive."

It may be a bit of a geeky read but it's definitely going to have an impact on the future of real estate search. Empowered real estate consumers are going to start demanding better relevancy in their search efforts based upon their experiences across the web with these new technologies.

Publish or Perish?

Pew Internet, a research organization dedicated to the study of the web and it's impact on just about everything, released a new study on blogging. Some of the results were interesting.

84% of bloggers describe their blog as either a “hobby” or just “something I do, but not something I spend a lot of time on.

One thing I found interesting was that only 18% of respondents had an RSS feed for their blog. Given the relative ease of doing this I was surprised at that number. Last year Time Warner asked their RoadRunner clients if they had heard of RSS and I think less than 10% new what it was, it may have been less than that. It would be interesting to see them do that study again given the impact that RSS has had on the web and software industry as a whole since then. Click here to view the full the full report from Pew Internet.

In future posts I am going to explore blogging and the real estate industry a little deeper and try my best to demystify it a bit for realty pros that want to jump in and do it right. You should know that like anything else worthwhile, it isn't easy. No piece of "off the shelf" software or platform is going to do the heavy lifting for you so a little homework will go a long way. If you want to generate results with blogging you'll need to join the 16% of bloggers that don't view it as a hobby. I am not the ultimate authority on the subject, so I will be enlisting advice of those who are and will impart their wisdom to you as best I can. Before we get into intricacies of blogging and why you should, or shouldn't join the fray, I'll start posting some reviews of blogs that I think get the job done. If you're an agent or broker with a blog, post a link in the comments section, I'd love to see it. Let's start with a favorite blog of mine from Greg Swann of Bloodhound Realty in Phoenix. He has a great writing style and isn't afraid to speak his mind, which is one of the basic tenets of good blogging. Click here to visit the Bloodhound Blog.

Yahoo & Zillow - Strange Bedfellows?

Zillow, the new home valuation "Vortal" has inked a deal with Yahoo Real estate to provide it's estimation tool to Yahoo users. Having followed the Zillow issue closely I am wondering how this is going to play in the Realtor community, specifically with Prudential. Prudential has an exclusive arrangement with Yahoo for their resale home search functionality. Go search for a listing on Yahoo, in most cases you will be immediately re-directed to a Prudential site (oddly enough when I tried this today I was redirected to a page with Prudential Logo that said the site was being updated and gave no indication when it would be operational again). The opinions I have seen regarding Zillow from agents and brokers runs the gamut from pensive to "the lion is coming back over the hill". When the launch of Zillow generated poor valuation numbers, the Realtor community pounced on the opportunity to trash the service in message boards across the web. Will there be a credibility problem if a Prudential agent generates a lead from Yahoo and the consumer is empowered with valuation data that is way off the mark? It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. I know Joel over at The Future of Real Estate Marketing blog has a good working relationship with Zillow, maybe we can get him to ask a few questions about how they envision the indirect partnership that they now have with a large broker. Joel?

Cracker Jack Marketing

I saw an interesting post today in news.com's web 2.0 blog about an old tactic with a new name, “crowdsourcing”. Yahoo is asking it's users to create ads for it’s new web page design. This brought up the memory of our local NBA’s team logo design contest a few years back. Guy Kawasaki employed crowdsourcing to get the jacket of his latest book designed. Personally I don't have a problem with a company using creative ways to solve problems, even if that means using amateur talent, as long as the talent isn’t compensated as an amateur. If the results are stellar, the contributor should be able to expect more than a plastic whistle at the bottom of a box of sticky popcorn.

Interview: Platial.Com Co-Founder Di-Ann Eisnor

I've been involved with real estate search technology in one way or another for quite a while now. Until recently most search interfaces have been about the same. Pick your city, zip, price range etc. etc. and you get a list of properties. If you're lucky there will be a link to an online map like mapquest. At best you'll be able to see where the gas stations and holiday inn's are near your desired spot. Enter the era of the Mashup. Now search is getting interesting and a heck of a lot more relevant. In an earlier post I talked about a start-up effort by a group of folks in Portland called Platial. I think it's one the most unique combinations of web 2.0 technologies on the web. I had an opportunity to interview one of the co-founders of Platial, Di-Ann Eisnor. Di-Ann is very accessible and has offered to answer more questions, so post your question in a comment and I'll be sure to forward them on to Di-Ann.

Question: Could you explain neogeography in layman's terms?

Answer:I found this definition on the Placekraft site.[Neogeogaphy is] sufficiently abstract to serve as a broad category of un/non-professional geographic practices (walking mapping, tagging, etc.).

For our purposes it has meant a form of democratization and citizen participation. Anyone can create their own map or add their stories, pictures, video to a Place anywhere in the world.

Question: Who founded Platial and Why?

Answer: Jason and I have been creating psychogeography inspired artwork and games about urban exploration for years but it never crossed function with our work as social software consultants until Google released their API. We were living in Amsterdam at the time and had an entire drawer full of maps, we and friends created for our constant stream of visitors to the city. These maps would change and collect new information depending on who was present and became rich and useful documents...alas with no way to preserve or share them other than our kitchen table.

We moved to Portland (Jason's hometown) to focus a bit better and met up with Jason's long time friend, Jake Olsen who had his own small software company - he became our third partner.

Question: What are your thoughts on how the Real Estate industry and their consumers can benefit from Platial?:

Answer: Platial is becoming a great way for homebuyers/renters to get to know a neighborhood; What are the existing and former residents saying?; What supermarkets, restaurants, schools, parks, crime, events are here? We're very focused on trying to paint a picture of a neighborhood/city based on collecting geographic information from people who live there. Two examples are:

Platial.com/Today which will give a near-real time aggregation of what's happening in a given city through photos, videos, places and events.
Platial.com/splash just enter any city and you'll see the Places and maps which are relevant.

One of my favorite real estate maps:
Real Estate bubble (This user has several great maps on the topic)

There are many maps created where brokers house there listings.

But the best really is for consumer research like if you want to see SF for francophiles or Boulder by Mountain Biking Trails or London for the architecture lover or kid-friendly Portland

Question: At some point You'll need to monetize your service. Can you give a brief overview of your business model?:

Answer: We have developed a local business offering that allows any local business to create an interactive business card and post it around Platial based on keyword and location. This will launch within a few weeks and is inspired by the plain old community bulletin board at the supermarket where small business have typically left their cards/flyers. We're also working on a number of partnership deals which have related revenue elements.

Question: What has been your greatest challenge to date?:

Answer: A year ago, mapmaking software was the domain of hardcore GIS. It could cost $50K and require years of training. We have two challenges related to this; the first is to make our site/tools easy and intuitive enough to be used by anyone in the world and second take this concept that is new for a large part of the population and see which parts are most exciting for them.

Question: What do you see as your greatest challenge moving forward?:

Answer: I think it's early days so our challenge continues to be finding the parts of our platform that are the most engaging, exciting to users around the world. One specific part of this includes how best to present and filter the information to make sure people are finding "right" kind of Place anywhere in the world.

The bigger goal of Platial is to show a post geopolitical picture of the world. Where information about Place is free and documented by people so that we can help each other navigate the world.

Question:User generated content is a cornerstone of Web 2.0. Tell us about the content You've seen on Platial so far:

Answer:
Coolest:
Webcam tourism

Weirdest:
San Francisco Treats
A map of San Francisco's flavorful characters compiled by a San Francisco character, Madame Gonzaga, who is a soothsaying Hungarian ghost dog. Definitely high on the weird scale. Video interviews in the place descriptions. Veddy gut, as the Madame would say.

Bizarre places of North America
Cryptozoological and alien stories from around North America. Closed Map.

Car Sex
Only four Places, but funny.

The Portland Horse Project
Map of the locations of little plastic horses planted by an artist all around Portland, OR

Commercial:
Cerebral Itch SOLD HERE
Showing where this small indie crafter sells her wares.

Great lakes Booksellers' Association Maps page
They created a map showing five indie bookstores authors could visit on a tour For each store they put together a map showing where the author might stay and nice places to have dinner. They used these maps to talk to editors in NYC to help get authors to come out to these great community bookstores in the midwest.

Most Unexpected:
Hopeless Romantic (Personal stories)

Good:
Fairtrade
Biodiesel

Update: Check out this post on Real Blogging from Richard Nacht. It's about a new book released from Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson. It's very appropriate to this topic. The Long Tail of Real Estate

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

As referenced in an earlier post, I have found a great tech magazine, called News Factor. I'm not sure how long it's been around, but it has great tech articles and the product reviews are awesome. The latest issue has an article entitled, "Banned in the USA". It would seem that much of the really cool technology that makes it to North America arrives on the slow boat, and sometimes not at all. Japan and Europe are the lands of the early adopter. For instance, the cell phone and the telephony technology behind in many countries is still years ahead of what we use every day. Technology as a part of every day existence is taken for granted.

Why is this important to a real estate pro? Because the world is getting smaller and your chances of doing business with someone relocating to or from the U.S. is going to become more commonplace than you might imagine. Take for instance the commercial that Coldwell Banker has running this summer*. It shows a Realtor meeting his Asian client at the airport with some broken dialect that he spent time to learn. It's probably time to learn their technology language as well. People that are accustom to using technology to communicate and do business will demand it of you. If you're up to speed with unified messaging, video podcasting and more, you'll have the edge on your competition. I can envision a person relocating from another country taking the time to save video podcasts of the properties they want to see on their iPod, laptop or phone and using it as a precursor to their property search. It would also help to be able to impart some wisdom in a listing presentation to someone who is relocating to one of these countries as well. When you're faced with this issue, will you know how to speak the language?

*I searched high and low for a link to this video. If you know where it can be found please post a link in the comments.

Is There A Technology Generation Gap?

I found an article today on MSNBC about age trends in the world of REALTORS. The article gives some insight with regards to technology and the willingness on the part of younger agents to be early adopters. The following is an excerpt from the article:

"Singer agreed with that assessment, adding that the majority of younger agents are much more familiar with technology than older Realtors. And because they are more comfortable with technology to start with, these younger agents are more willing to try new technology tools, such as virtual tours and podcasts."

My experience in selling technology products to agents/brokers over the years hasn't shown any bias toward the younger generation. Being more familiar with technology will only give an edge to those that understand how to apply it to sound business and sales practices. In my opinion, it isn't being wasted on the young. Nothing replaces experience or talent. So, no matter how old you are, if you're good, the right Web 2.0 tools can help make you the best. It will never be the other way around.

MSNBC: Finding Home: More GenX-ers discover that a career as a Realtor suits them

Get on The Wiki-Wiki!

In my previous posts I've referred to a common Web 2.0 tool called a "Wiki". Anyone that knows me is aware of the fact that the nomenclature assigned to things on the web can be a little like nails on chalkboard to me. Some of them rarely make any sense, the latest is Zillow.Com. I mean no offense but that one still cracks me up. If there is rational explanation for a web moniker, I'm o.k. with it and I guess this one doesn't bother me that much. Wiki was created by a geek named Howard Cunningham back in the mid 90's that wanted to come up with an alternative to his original naming idea "Quick Web". On a trip to Hawaii he had asked a ticket agent at the airport how to make a connection in a terminal and the agent told him to take a Wiki-Wiki bus. It seems that in Hawaiian, WikiWiki, means fast and their little shuttle buses are evidently very fast.

O.K. now that we have the useless information/commentary out the way, what the heck is a Wiki? Here's the official definition from the most commonly used Wiki in the world, Wikipedia:

A wiki (IPA: [ˈwiː.kiː] or [ˈwɪ.kiː] [1]) is a type of website that allows users to add, remove, or otherwise edit and change most content very quickly and easily, sometimes without the need for registration. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative writing. The term wiki can also refer to the collaborative software itself (wiki engine) that facilitates the operation of such a website (see wiki software), or to certain specific wiki sites, including the computer science site (and original wiki), WikiWikiWeb, and the online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia.

User generated content is a cornerstone of Web 2.0 and Wikis are finding their way into any number of sites. I think one of the more intriguing uses are by organizations who can take advantage of input from employees, vendors, clients and other partners to build a user generated database of information. Basically you're building a knowledge base from the people that actually have the knowledge. What a concept! This must be making consultants and MBA's really nervous. I can think of several ways to integrate wikis into your communication flow with clients. If you know of anyone in the real estate industry using Wiki's post a comment with a link, I'd love to see it. Here's an example of Wiki that discuss the Real Estate bubble. This Wiki is from Mortgage News Daily. The Rain City Guide is a great real estate blog in the Seattle area. They have an active Wiki that I was able to make some additions to. I think it would be a bit intimidating for some folks to figure out how to make changes etc, and I saw some scripting errors as I worked through it, but in the end I was able to make some additions. I am certain it will improve over time and hope others in the industry will actively participate in it.