Why Should I Have My Listing in iTunes?

We've been answering that question for over a year now. Those that have reaped the benefit of increased exposure to their listings now have something else to be excited about. Just think, after all those iPhones get activated in iTunes, the user is just a few clicks away from our ever expanding directory of clients. Sweet.

The Semantic Real Estate Listing

Had your fill of Web 2.0? Not to worry, Web 3.0 is on it's way. The latest buzz in the world of computer science is what has been dubbed the "semantic web". This month's issue of Business 2.0 has an article that does an excellent job of explaining the concept that some say will completely revolutionize the web as we know it now. The web that we work with each day is nothing more than a compilation of documents designed to be read by humans. As the article aptly points out, we can add keywords and meta data to make them easier to find, but they are not what is referred to as "machine readable" which is defined as a way for a computer to read and recognize the content it is presented with. Think of it as OCR ("optical character recognition") for everything on the web. In essence, the concept of a semantic web offers the ability for computers to reason the relationship of everything hosted in the proper format.

The B 2.0 article gave a good analogy of looking at the difference between today's web and a semantic web as the difference between 2D and 3D. It has some pretty far reaching implications for real estate listing data. If you look at at a listing from a semantic point of view, the listing becomes an object. This object becomes instantly connected to a network of other objects with a specific relations to one another (Videos,photos,community information,school information,comparable sales,shopping and services,tax data so on and so forth). Today, in order to make those connections, a human has to build the relational connections from one data set to another. The promise of this new technology is such that through "smart agents", the web can be culled to produce all of these results, instantly and with more relevance. Some view it as artificial intelligence for the web.

There are companies like Radar Networks in the process of building data standards and tools that could give us the ability to start using the web in a way that is much smarter and faster. But as the article points out, it's kind of a "chicken and egg" scenario. If history is any lesson regarding the ground breaking emergence of world changing technology, it will take longer than the pundits predict to come to any meaningful fruition. It will be interesting to see who the early movers are in the real estate space when it comes to this technology.

The following graphic is by no means an exhaustive list of what the "objects " could be, in fact, they are what came to me off the top of my head. What do you envision as objects or uses of semantic technology?

A Follow Up To The Coffee Table of The Future

Too Damn Funny!

Bloodhound Blog Launches Real Estate Weblogging 101

The dog pound takes the wraps off a "book in beta blog format" today entitled Real Estate Weblogging 101. It's a learning resource for real estate professionals that culls the history of blogging related posts in digest format from the BloodHound blog.

I'm glad to see anything out there that tries to do something to help real estate professionals understand the tenets of blogging. Essentially this "book" moves one of the categories of the Bloodhound blog into it's own domain. I think it's a good resource for anyone that needs to start or improve a blogging endeavor.

I usually agree with most of what Greg has to say about the issue of real estate blogging. Exploding some of the myths of blogging is a worthwhile endeavor and I'm glad to see somebody develop a learning resource that detours some of the hype and bad advice I see all too often. I've seen real estate blogging advice that gives step by step instruction on how to be extremely unprofessional, all for the sake of creating blog traffic. Amazing. There are many other instances of advice that are centered solely on the idea of quantity over quality. That kind of effort will rarely result in any kind of meaningful, long term business results.

It will be interesting to see how WL101 progresses. I wonder if Greg has plans to eventually print the blog as "dead tree" book?

Can't Sell It? - Domuswap It

A software development company in Florida thinks they have a solution to the sluggish residential resale market. They call it Domuswap

"DomuSwap is an online listing service exclusively for sellers of residential real estate who will consider an exchange of property. Unlike most other real estate search engines that focus exclusively on buyers finding houses, DomuSwap caters to sellers looking to also buy another house and who therefore may be interested in an exchange."

What do you think? Does a business model like Domuswap have a chance or do you think it's dud?

A Lesson In Disruption

There is an ongoing lesson in disruption that I think real estate industry leaders can glean a great deal from. The professor of this lesson is someone near and dear to the hearts of every red blooded American, Mickey Mouse.

Fast Company magazine's latest issue has a feature story entitled, "Brave New Mouse", The Apple-Ization of Disney. Of all industries that have the most to lose from the disruption of the web, traditional publishing and broadcasting is one of the biggest. It's no secret that most of them have struggled with the effort thus far. In many cases they suffer from the same hand wringing attitudes as the real estate industry. When Disney was faced with an opportunity to work with Apple on a new way to deliver their product last year, they didn't over think it.

By creating a digital division and then getting out of its way, Disney is positioning themselves to be an innovator in a new way of doing business. Everything that they know about advertising, programming, metrics, demographics and more has to be redeveloped for a new medium, a medium that clients will apply much more pressure for results. The options available to those clients will come with much more flexibility and opportunity than in the past. Advertising clients will no longer be forced to buy from the rate card.

"The Walt Disney Co. has more than 133,000 employees around the world and 84 years of tradition. It has rules. But with digital technology changing the way the once-untouchable media giants create, distribute, and profit from their content, Disney needs people to break some rules and blaze new paths into the future."

Here's my big picture vision. I think in many cases, the clients will participate in developing and designing their own creative direction using web based platforms that will allow them to "mash up" a combination of advertising products aggregated into a single interface. Just plug in your budget, choose from multimedia, interstitial , keyword, banner, broadcast, etc. and click submit. The media plan gets built and scheduled on the fly, all the necessary creative folks are notified, they build each component and drop it back into the system and the whole thing tracks and delivers the accounting, metrics and ROI.

Whatever the future holds, it's clear that hiring the right people and empowering them is the solution to disruption for Disney. Leaders in the real estate industry would do well to emulate it.

Meet Simon Scowl AKA Andrew Keen

The sky is falling and it's Web 2.0's fault! Somebody get Simon Scowl some French Cries to go with that Whamburger. A profound cultural crisis? Give me a break. We're supposed to shed a tear for traditional media? Who are these so-called experts in culture, media and entertainment? Oh my goodness, what ever will I do if the restaurant critic of my local paper gets "disintermediated" out of his job? Sorry Andrew, it's too late. If people have to consume cultural crap, they might as well generate it themselves.

MLPodcast Viewer 1.5 Released!

MLPodcast has released an all new web based viewer window for our client's video podcast content. Recent advances in display devices and software such as, iTunes, Apple T.V. and the upcoming release of the iPhone have changed the standard video display size for podcasting content. This change allows us to provide a web viewing experience about twice the size of our previous interface! Along with the viewer size change we're now displaying detailed listing information that was previously only embedded in the podcast feed data. A "View More Listings" link has been added that takes the viewer to the broadcast listing page in the MLPodcast video directory.

Beginning today, all podcast episodes will be produced in the new file size. We have many more features, improvements and distribution partnerships to announce soon as well. Stay tuned!

Searching The Spoken Word

MLPodcast distribution partner Podzinger has a new name and a new focus, they are now EveryZing. For those not familiar with their technology, it's a search engine, but not the everyday variety you're familiar with. EveryZing's technology searches the spoken word in audio and video files. With the web moving more and more into a multimedia environment, this technology will become even more important as time goes on. Stay tuned for a interview with EveryZing where we will find out more about how this technology works and how EveryZing is working with MLPodcast to help distribute our client's video content! Below is a screen shot of a search we used to find one of our client's videos. We used the search term "710 Lofts" (see screen shot below), which is the name of one of the properties in the narration portion of the video. Give it a try yourself, it's remarkably accurate.

Carnival #46 At Home Staging Rants & Raves

The 46th edition of the Carnival of Real Estate is live at Home Staging Rants and Raves blog. A colorful theme that has Mike's Corner seeing green!

Search Engine Optimization - Google Speaks

You might have noticed I added a new blog roll category entitled, "GeekBlogging". For those interested, these are some of the blogs I read on regular basis regarding technology and the web. I'm also a voracious reader of magazines, thank goodness these purchases can be chalked up to business expense because some of the best are imports from Great Britain that can get a bit pricey. One of my favorites is entitled, "Practical Web Design". My latest purchase is dedicated almost entirely to the inner workings of Google. The best article is a lengthy interview with Matt Cutts. Matt is Google's resident representative to the webmaster community (you'll find a link to his personal blog in the new blog roll).

Regular readers of this blog know that I am a big advocate of exploding the myths of SEO, (search engine optimization). Google makes changes on a frequent basis to the way they approach search. Staying on top of those changes can be a daunting task so when I am asked to help a broker or agent comes to grips with search marketing, I remind them to stick with the basics and use the only SEO that matters, "Seek Expert Opinion". A quote from the interview:

"Google uncovers cheating in short order and takes it very seriously"

Please keep that in mind the next time you're tempted to respond to a spam or inquiry regarding a guarantee to get you in the "top ten" in Google or anywhere else. There is a right way and wrong way to approach the issue and anyone that tells you they can hit the bull's eye of this moving target is jerking your chain.

If you've ever been interested in knowing more about how Google approaches the myriad issues associated with search, do two things. 1. Plunk down about $16 on issue 163 of Practical Web Design at Borders or B&N. 2. Start reading Matt's blog. Just remember, search is only one of a long list of bullet points in your web strategy. Spending too much time on it is done at the peril of your overall success.

Book Report: Be Unreasonable

I started the draft for this post last Saturday. It was a day to reflect on this blog as it turned a year old and give some thought to the direction it will take in its second year. Our original intention in blogging was to focus on 2.0 technology and marketing for the RE industry and I think we've done a pretty good job of that. Along the way I began voicing opinions regarding business models and the bigger picture of RE 2.0. Why? I think it is because I am continually amazed at the level of hand wringing and lack of creativity I see. It would seem that what is supposed to be a cooperative effort amongst like minded business people is, in many cases, nothing more than a herd mentality. A mentality hell bent on forcing yesterday's square peg into the round hole of the future. I'm not painting the entire industry with the same broad stroke. I'm actually very excited about the future but many of the actions and conversations taking place leave me scratching my head.

I think there exists a blend of traditional and new methods that will emerge in the form of several new business models. Who will be the players that make it happen? The unreasonable ones. I'm not talking about law breaking mavericks or people who prey on fear and uncertainty as a means of furthering their own agendas. I'm talking about people who are thinking different.

I just finished a book that could easily be re-written to fit the topical issues of the real estate industry today. For that matter it could just as easily become a manifesto for anyone trying to come to grips with the development of any new business model. It is entitled "Be Unreasonable" The unconventional way to extraordinary business results by Paul Lemberg. From the introduction:

"Imagine that you were free to act, unbound by tradition, convention, history, story, or prejudice. Imagine that you could make changes simply because they were the right ones, and not because they fit with someone else's agenda. Imagine decisions being forged in the depth of your clearest vision without what you or anyone else thinks you're supposed to do. Now, imagine being guided by your desires rather than your fears."

Those that are open minded enough to stop wasting time on the rhetoric and fear mongering from both sides of the issue have a fighting chance. More from the book's manifesto:

"Consider why normal is normal. Ask how normal things came to be that way. Is it because they were effective, or is it because they were easy? Being unreasonable is not about being abnormal, paranormal or transormal--it is about looking beneath and behind the normal so your see how it got that way, and once you understand why that normal is considered normal, acting to create the results you seek without regard to what normal people think."

There are plenty of chances to become unreasonable, Lemberg style. With those chances come opportunity. Kick conventional wisdom to the curb and grab a copy of this book, it's full of examples and situations that mirror real estate. It just might help you arrive at the "aha!" moment you've been looking for.

In an upcoming post I'll highlight an example of a powerful industry that is truly being disrupted by technology. Thinking different is helping one of these industry giants figure out a path to new ways of doing business while others waste time trying to protect the status quo.

Previous Book Reports:
Citizen Marketers
The Power of Place
The Long Tail
An Army of Davids
Mavericks At Work
Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?

CORE Podcast Updated

The Carnival of Real Estate host podcast has been updated with an interview conducted by Drew Meyers of Zillow with Justin Smith of Christian Real Estate Network Blog.

Bling Your Web Site With A Blidget

Here's a cool way to add your blog content to any web site. It's called a blidget (blog widget)
If you really want to bling up your site or blog with widgets, check out WidgetBox. It works great with news feeds and basic RSS, it unfortunately does not recognize enclosures like audio or video podcasts.

CORE Expands Efforts

Drew Meyers at Zillow wants to take the Carnival of Real Estate to a new level. He has a lofty goal to for CORE to become a destination for "All Things Relating to Real Estate Blogging". I've had the opportunity to get to know Drew over the last few months and I have no doubt that he will be able to meet his goal. The guy has an awesome work ethic and a keen grasp of the RE.net. Drew is currently asking former CORE hosts to apply for an opportunity to be a contributor to the CORE blog. Shaun from EkDay has already posted and I'll be submitting my first post soon and I would encourage other previous hosts to discuss the opportunity with him.

Speaking of CORE, #45 is live today at Christian Real Estate Network Blog.

06.29.07 - iPhone Arrives - New Ads Online

The iPhone arrives on the 29th. Apple has also released 3 new iPhone ads ( 1, 2, 3, ) on their web site. Very well done indeed. Apple continues to set the bar high for tech advertising. Intel, Dell and most of the companies in this space really need to take a cue from Cupertino. Simple, to the point and the product does the selling.

I'm really hoping for the sake of my Realtor® friends that the lock box manufacturers will quickly add this phone to their list of devices for property access, there's no reason for them not to. Even without the lockbox access, the iPhone is poised to become the ultimate Realtor® communication device. Oh, and did I mention it shows W I D E Screen Video Podcasts? :) Can't wait to get my hands one one.

Mike's Corner Celebrates Its First Anniversary

A little over a year ago at a board meeting our Executive VP, Mark Basile, suggested the concept of developing a blog for our prospects and clients. Our product is a single spoke in an entirely new kind of wheel that for better or worse has been slapped with the Web 2.0 moniker. It was clear to us that we had an opportunity and an obligation to help explain the landscape of Real Estate 2.0.

When Mark and myself get together to discuss business, we almost need a moderator to keep us on point. We both enjoy talking about everything we see as having an impact on the industry. Mark suggested we create the blog in a fashion that would establish a one to many conversation about technology and it's impact on the real estate industry. A face to a name, a direct connection to the leadership of the company. While I haven't exactly stayed on point every time, I think what I've had to say has been done in the spirit of our orignal goals.

Yesterday was exactly 365 days from my original post. I'm pretty proud of what we've accomplished. We plan to take the blog to another level in the next few months. If you've just started reading or you've had us in your RSS reader for a while now, let us know what you think and what you would like to see from us in our second year.

Cyberhomes & Keller Williams Partner On Listings

Keller Williams announced this week that they are providing listings from their new KWLS system to Cyberhomes, a valuation site operated by Fidelity National Financial. A snippet from their agent announcement:

“Keller Williams Realty is an agent-centric organization and FNRES’s Cyberhomes business model supports this focus, making it a good fit for us and our associates,” says Keller Williams Chief Technology Officer, David Therrien.

“We wouldn't be able to provide this to our associates if we hadn't launched the KWLS last year,” he adds. "We will continue to build partnerships that will help our associates reach more consumers without spending a dime of their money."

I am very impressed with KW's commitment to listing distribution and some of the new tools they are empowering agents with. For those not familiar with KWLS, RisMedia has a great interview with KW's CTO, David Therrien about the system and KW's goals.

Back in 2000/2001 I worked with a company that was a trail-blazer regarding the concept of data control and listing distribution, our tag line was "Take Control". That seems to be the central theme of KWLS. It's a smart play.