Viewing properties using Google Earth
June 15, 2007 at 11:41 am | In foxtons, google maps, nestoria, search, trovit | 2 Comments
This week both Nestoria and Trovit announced their new Google Earth feature, allowing users to view properties in 3D. Interestingly, Foxtons is also claiming Google Earth on integration on their blog, but when I tried a search on their website, it didn’t seem to be working properly.
update: Foxtons web team had a small problem with the KML feed, but they’ve managed to fix it and it’s now working ‘like a dream’
From Mashup to Business (Nestoria.co.uk)
June 3, 2007 at 11:48 am | In google maps, nestoria, search, start up | Leave a CommentIt’s been about a year since Nestoria first entered the property search market in London. In a relatively short period, the service has extended UK wide and last month entered the Spanish market with great fanfare.
Mike Astle, Nestoria’s Head of Engineering, was on hand at last weeks Google Developer Day; to explain that Nestoria’s business and technical model is way more than just “plotting pins on a map.” Among the highlights of Mike’s speech included his revealing the company’s plans to
- expose more data via the Nestoria API
- implicit personalization (learning from users)
- international expansion
- improved user experience
Below are the complete slides of Mike’s talk at the conference, and Youtube Developer Day video is here
[via Nestoria blog]
Norway’s mashup
May 9, 2007 at 10:55 pm | In europe, google maps, norway, oslo | 4 Comments
Now covers Oslo
[via REV]
This is big, I mean really big
April 6, 2007 at 9:29 am | In google, google maps, marketing, search | 2 CommentsGoogle’s MyMaps launch yesterday is bound to cause a social networking revolution similar to what MySpace did a few years ago. OK, maybe not that big, but it’s definitely gonna be big impact for all (or most) of the new real estate vertical search engines, because – to some degree, GOOG is now letting Joe Public do for himself, what Nestoria and others have been doing/developing for us in recent months/years. Plus GOOG have the marketing clout (i.e loads and loads of cash) to completely obliterate anybody who stands in their way with a similar idea. I honestly dont know how MyMaps will affect business models of the new vertical searchsites, but it will most certainly affect the way they plan to make money, and more than likely their future potential in raising venture financing and much needed liquidity.
Joel Burslem, writing for Inman’s blog, gives some insight in what we may very well see in the not too distant future:
MyMaps … allows anyone to create a customized map and turns all of us into potential cartographers. Using the service you can quickly add placemarks and draw lines and shapes to show boundaries or routes on a Google Map, instantly creating your own mashup. You can even embed photos and YouTube videos.
MyMaps’ applications in real estate are endless in my mind; a buyers agent could create an map of all the properties they wanted to show a buyer and email them a link of the route they’ll be taking. Or, a broker could create a map of all the open houses they might be showing on a particular weekend. Any other ideas you can think of?
The only thing missing from this release is the ability to embed your maps in your own web site or blog but I suspect that it won’t be long before we can.
Properazzi.com, the first official 2.0 pan-European property search engine
March 14, 2007 at 8:26 am | In europe, google maps, properazzi, search | 2 Comments
Properazzi.com can boast to be the first official 2.0 pan-European property search engine with a listing database of about 1.3 million properties from damn near every country in Europe, both sales and rentals. Properazzi also has the ability to search for properties beyond Europe, I found search results for Turkey (officially/unofficially Europe), and was able to perform searches in Israel and Cairo, but unfortunately wasn’t able to find any listings there (yet). I’m not sure if this is by design, or if the developers intend to expand the database to include Africa and the Middle East. Given Dubai’s volcanic property market and growing markets in Qatar, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, it may not be such a bad idea.
But for the moment, Properazzi comes with the standard Google Map API, and uniquely offers users the ability to price listings in 90 different currencies and to perform searches in 30 different languages. It’s fairly easy to navigate the map, although I did expereince some difficulty in zooming in on specific local neighborhoods in London such as Clapham Common, or Sofia in Bulgaria. Nevertheless, the search box did a good job producing results for these locations and the results page offers users a feedback feature which invites suggestions to new property websites, which is quite thoughtful.
Overall, Properazzi.com offers an enjoyable and rather satisfying search experience. The site has also been shortlisted for the Red Herring 100 Awards, a celebration of the 100 most innovative companies in Europe, which will be held later this month in Cannes.
Extate’s gone ‘mad as a mapper"
January 15, 2007 at 9:35 am | In extate, google maps, search | 10 CommentsWe got word from Extate.com’s co-founder Douglas de Jager yesterday; letting us know of their “super sexy sliding maps” and “full map interface for browsing.”
Not only that, but we noticed Extate is also featuring a very handy skype integration link for every listing and currently boasting a database of over 130,000 UK property listings from the over 340 estate agencies. Doug claims that Extate is the first and only site to feature listings from all ten of the UK’s largest estate agency groups. Not even Rightmove, “the old dinosaur portal”features all ten according to Doug. Great news, maybe now they can start making some Rightmove money 
Bush uses "tha Google"
October 24, 2006 at 5:57 pm | In bush, google, google maps, humour, politics, usa | Leave a CommentPoor sod can’t remember the name of the program, but “likes to look at the maps”
New property mashup
October 24, 2006 at 11:50 am | In UK, google maps, search | Leave a Comment
TechCrunch reports on Homes24’s relaunch; a partnership between Archant, the UK’s largest independently-owned regional media business and Amsterdam based developer Rossetta:
Now ordinarily this would be of only passing interest to TechCrunch UK, largely because most of the time newspaper groups simply put up Web 1.0 shovel-ware and just reprint the paper ads online. This time however, Archant appears to have engaged brain with strategy and hired Rosetta in Amsterdam, a self-styled developer of software for classifieds and communities. The result is a Google Maps mashup with which allows home-hunters to identify and zoom in on available properties. To fund development, Archant is offering free advertising for estate agents who pay only when consumers organise viewings through the site.
GoogleMapsMania guy talks about (what else) Googlemaps
October 20, 2006 at 2:54 pm | In google maps, interview | Leave a CommentInteresting video interview with the GoogleMapsMania blogger. Dude obviously has a lot of extra time on his hands; insofar as he’s tracked over 900 sites mashing Gmaps. Two intersting ones he mentions in this interview are Placeopedia.com which mashes up Wikipedia articles with gmap locations; as well as Virtual Tourism, which mashes locations with video
I’m sure they’ll talk about this, this weekend
October 19, 2006 at 9:30 pm | In google maps, mobile, search, technology | Leave a Comment
-
Recent Comments
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
