SOMEWHAT FRANK

Death to DRM, Future of RSS, AOL'Sphere It Widget, Zillow Relaunches, Blog Search Wars, Google My Maps & P2P Loans

Photo of the week: robobunny by Courtney Brooke. Happy Easter.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 04.08.07

DRM-Free Music
EMI announced DRM-free music earlier in the week and now Microsoft is hinting at doing the same. Is this the death of DRM?

500 million+!!! AOL'Sphere Goes Live
AOL and Sphere quietly turned on Sphere It in their AOL News, Sports and Entertainment articles. The Sphere It widget is great - I have one too on all my posts as it offers users the ability to find related content. Love it. If you would like one for your site be sure to check out the Sphere tools.

Google Personalizes Maps
Google Maps launched a new feature to its maps product this week (April 5, 2007) called My Maps with offers users the ability to personalize a Google Map. My Maps enables anyone to draw, plot or color a Google Map without having to know an ounce of coding knowledge thus bringing simplified personal mapping to the masses.

Yahoo Testing Alpha (Beta) Multi Search
Search Engine Land covers Yahoo's launch of Alpha a new search experience. Alpha is really more of a multi-search tool that submits your query to multiple sources. It really reminds me of AOL FullView Search.

10 Things You Can Do With Mixed Media RSS
Marshall Kirkpatrick, of SplashCast Media, presents a list of ways to leverage mixed media feeds produced by SplashCast.  He provides big-picture use-cases and explains how you can use other products I have previously reviewed like Tumblr, FeedBurner, ZapTxt and Rasasa to create some interesting feed mashups.

The Future of RSS
Read/Write Web looks at RSS today and asks if RSS is evolving into a tool for delivering complex, semantically rich information. A great article for anyone looking for information on RSS.

Technorati and the blog search wars
Mathew Ingram dissects Technorati's recent state of the blogosphere. It is still interesting to see how fast Technorati.com has been growing: over 9 million unique visitors in March, up 141 per cent in a single quarter, and double-digit growth every month in page views as well. Not bad.

Financing Web Work with Prosper.com
Prosper.com enables peer-to-peer loans for startups and anyone looking to do their own thing. If you are looking for funding you may want to check it out.

Zillow Relaunch - Adds Its Own Q&A Service
Every home in the Zillow database has its own dedicated page. Any user can now also add photos and information about any home and its neighborhood to the site. Users can also indicate if a home is for sale, and the asking price, as well as additional info.

Weblin’s Avatars Surf the Web with You
Kristen Nicole reviews the recent launch of Weblin, a program that lets you create a web avatar that travels with you on your web journey. According to the article when you come across a site where there are other Weblins, you’ll be able to see them and strike up a conversation. Chatting avatars on the web - interesting!

iminlikewithyou, an interesting new look at online flirting
iminlikewithyou is all about flirting, well, the art of flirting. Users sign up for the service and answer a few basic questions about themselves. Photos can be added as well as other personal information to be rewarded with valuable flirting points.

Widgets Arrive for the iPod
The iPod is still largely a closed development platform, but that's not stopping some folks from creating widgets that run on it. Steve Rubel points to two products from Kooloroo that bring handy information to the iPod.

Sloog.org Offers Social Bookmarking Mashup For Second Life Virtual World

Mapping mashups have become extremely common in the web 2.0 as developers have leverages web services to combine data with maps of Earth. I recently had a close encounter with a mapping mashup of a new kind called Sloog.org.

Sloog.org is a bookmarking service for Second Life residents and offers a unique mashup experience because rather than plotting items to a map of Earth, it plots location in the virtual world, Second Life. That's right, Sloog.org leverages a tagging infrastructure to offers users a way to search Second Life. Sloog.org is free and enables users to tag and search both places and avatars. Users (with Second Life access) can also teleport directly to visit locations bookmarked with the service. Sloog.org showcases some of the most recently visited and most popular places like Mercedez Benz Island, Virtual Morocco and Mosi-Mosi Headquarters. I did a search and found AOL Pointe, the AOL virtual real estate, and displayed the results below.

Sloog.org is a product of the Barcelona-based multimedia studio Mosi-Mosi. They are determined to make Second Life and a better place. To stay up to speed with the latest Sloog.org happenings check out the official Sloog.org blog.

Bottom-line: Sloog.org is a social bookmarking services for Second Life that offers users a great way to search and discover new parts of the virtual world.

Unthirsty Quenches Happy Hour Thirst

I know it is just the start of a new week but if you are looking to ease into it with a happy hour, you might want to check out Unthirsty. Unthirsty is a local happy hour search engine and directory. Unthirsty's mission is simply to connect users with the closest happy hour possible. With Unthirsty you enter your address and the site presents you with local happy hour drink and food specials on an Ajax Google map. Upon interacting with the plotted locations, drink specials and happy hour schedules appear in a bubble above the venue. For example, I searched for a happy hour in Mountain View, California and found a couple which are plotted in the screen-shot below.

If interactive maps are not your thing, Unthirsty also offers a list view of the happy hour directory. Additionally, Unthirsty offers a mobile version of the site that offers a single text box to enter a location and receive a list of the closest happy hours. This could come in handy on the road so just remember this URL: unthirsty.com/mobile. Finally, you can help Unthirsty by submitting a happy hour location.   

Hopefully, Unthirsty makes handling the start of another week a little easier - cheers!

Google Sued, Microsoft Buys TellMe, AOL Local, Last.fm Video, Attention Economy Overload & TECH cocktail 4 Coming Soon

Photo of the Week: This is a photo I took in my old neighborhood in Lincoln Park in Chicago prior to moving on to AOL in Virginia. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 03.18.07

Viacom Drops a $1 Billion Nuke on Google
Remember when Napster was a lawsuit target for helping to foster pirated music? When Google acquired YouTube everyone wondered who would be the first company to try and collect on video copyright infringement in a similar fashion. We now know, as Viacom was the first to step to the plate with a one billion dollar lawsuit against Google. Complete.com offers some interesting analysis on the situation.

AOL moves AOL Local Search into Beta - it's very slick
CenterNetworks reviewed the latest beta to come out of AOL. AOL Local refreshes the local options as a user moves around a map. So start in 10036 (Times Square) and move to 11235 (Brooklyn) and the options move.

Microsoft to Acquire Tellme Networks
Tellme Networks, Inc., a leading provider of voice services for everyday life, including nationwide directory assistance, enterprise customer service and voice-enabled mobile search. Microsoft and Tellme share a vision around the potential of speech as a way to enable access to information, locate other people and enhance business processes, any time and from any device.

Last.fm Adds Video Tracking
The Register reported earlier this week that social music play, Last.fm has added the ability to not only track the music you play on iTunes and other services but now is going to start doing the same with video.

Report: New Bloggers Flatlined in 2005, Reading Climbs
Steve Rubel reports that according to the latest State of the News Media report, the share of the online population that tried blogging peaked back in January 2005 at 10% and has hovered since at 8%. Blog readership, on the other hand is climbing.

The Attention Economy is Killing My Attention
Nick O'Neill explains how the attention economy may be producing information overload. He wonders how product like twitter along with blogs will be able to co-exisit as people piling on attention commitments.

Del.icio.us Adds Tag Descriptions
Del.icio.us, the popular social bookmarking site owned by Yahoo, has added a new feature which enables users to for the first time not only tag items but also add meta-data to title and describe each tag.

Goplan launches!
Webreakstuff has launched a new product called Goplan which offers a suite of online project management and collaboration tools that could draw comparisons to 37signals' product line.

TECH cocktail 4: Going, Going, Gone
TECH cocktail 4, the forth event in the event series I co-founded with Eric Olson back in July 2006, is now on its fourth event and we filled a 500 person guest list in 23 hours. Wowsers! TECH cocktail 4 will be on April 12, 2007 at John Barleycorn Wrigleyville in Chicago but due to the overwhelming response we have started a TECH cocktail 4 wait-list for anyone still interested in going. I hope to see you there.
 

BrowseGoods To Visually Shop The Web

Is window shopping your thing? If so, you might like what BrowseGoods has to offer as it recently launched a new way to shop online. Rather than searching directly for the items you are looking to buy, BrowseGoods allows you to casually browse for items.

BrowseGoods enables users to shop visually by browsing over a number of items in a handful of categories. BrowseGoods is not a visual search in the same sense as Like.com which actually returns search results based of an image. Instead, BrowseGoods incorporates an drag and drop interface, similar to any Ajax map product, which allows users to easily move across a number of items very quickly. If you find something you like you can save it for later, email it to a friend or buy it immediately from Amazon.com. The screen-shot below was taken as I browsed the men's shoe selection.

The BrowseGoods experience may be something worth giving a try, especially if you don't quite know what you are looking to buy. For other perspectives check out Search Engine Journal, TechCrunch and Ajax Magazine.

Find Cheap Gas Prices With MapQuest

Gasoline prices in the United States have been creeping up for a number years now. With little doubt that the prices will ever be under a dollar again, hybrid vehicles have become increasingly popular, with the Toyota Prius being a leading vehicle sold in the United States. If buying a new hybrid ride is not your thing, then you may want to find cheaper fuel. MapQuest, the online mapping service owned by AOL, recently launched a new mashup service called MapQuest Gas Prices aimed at helping users find the cheapest gasoline around.

MapQuest Gas Prices uses pricing data from Oil Pricing Information Service which is updated up to seven times per day to plot all of the gas prices in your area. Mashing up gas prices with a map is not a new concept as other sites like Map Gas Prices, GasBuddy.com and Record Gas Watch have been around for awhile now but MapQuest takes the idea a step further by also incorporating gas stations that sell diesel and alternative fuels in addition to links and information about alternative fueled vehicles. MapQuest also provides driving directions to any of the sites, which is also a key differentiator from other similar gas mapping sites. Below is a screen-shot showing a simple gas price mapping.

Interestingly, MapQuest has plans to ensure the site will be accessible on cell phones via MapQuest Mobile with a link to directions in the coming months, so users should always have the lowest gas prices at your fingertips whether on a computer or on a mobile device.

2007 Web 2.0 & Tech Conference Outlook

It is time to start planning which conferences are going to attend in 2007. To make it easier  I have compiled a list of some of the best web 2.0, technology, design, marketing and innovation conferences and events scheduled in 2007. This is meant to be a working list, so if you think I have missed a conference or event please feel free to comment on this article or send me an email and I can update the list.

JANUARY
Consumer Electronics Show
January 8-11 ~ Las Vegas, NV
With four decades of history, the International CES reaches across global markets, connects the industry and enables CE innovations to grow and thrive. This show is filled with innovations in technology, gadgets and lots of big TV's!

MacWorld Conference & Expo
January 8-12 ~ San Francisco, CA
Immerse yourself in five revitalizing day’s worth of the largest gathering of Mac industry experts, pundits, and enthusiasts. Cultivate fresh skills, nurture new acquaintances, and harvest indispensable tools in which to further feed your imagination and fuel your Mac soul.

DLD
January 21-23 ~ Munich, Germany
DLD (Digital, Life, Design) is one of Europe's freshest conferences covering digital innovation, gaming, arts and science, bringing together thought leaders from Europe, the Middle-East, America and Asia.

Search Engine Watch LIVE!
January 25 ~ Dallas, TX
This informal, half-day event offers attendees the opportunity to meet editorial staff, Search Engine Strategies speakers, and members of the Search Engine Watch community in person, network with local peers, and discuss the hottest topics and latest news in the search industry.

DEMO
January 30 - February 1 ~ Palm Desert, CA
The premier launch venue for new products, technologies and companies. DEMO has established a reputation for identifying and presenting to an elite audience the products most likely to have a significant impact on the marketplace and market trends in the coming year.

FEBRUARY
Brave New Web
February 7 ~ Boston, MA
Designed to bridge the gap between the current practitioners and the business and financial communities that are crucial for innovation and new business creation. Innovation happens at the intersections of different industries and disciplines.

Digital Hollywood Media Summit
February 7-8 ~ New York, NY
The Premier International Conference on Motion Pictures, Television, Cable & Satellite, Broadband, Wireless, Publishing, Radio, Magazines, News & Print Media, Advertising and Marketing.

CommunityNext
February 10 ~ Palo Alto, CA
The premier conference on how successful online communities and social networks build, grow and monetize.

Adaptive Path San Francisco: MX
February 12-13 ~ San Francisco, CA
Design has emerged as a strategic force in business. Managers building the next generation of digital products are confronted with an increasingly demanding set of challenges. MX San Francisco brings together thought-leaders in design & business to address these challenges.

Search Engine Strategies UK
February 13-15 ~ London, UK
The industry converges for a week of spirited discussion, high-level learning and attendees leave with actionable battle plans to go forward with for their companies.

Future of Web Apps
February 20-22 ~ London, UK
Three days of inspiration and insight where speakers will be discussing the future of the web industry, Web 2.0, emerging technologies and standards, and how it will change the way you build applications. 

MARCH
South By Southwest Interactive
March 9-13 ~ Austin, TX
Attracting digital creatives as well as visionary technology entrepreneurs, the SXSW Interactive Festival enables you to connect, discover and inspire your link to the cutting edge.

VON (Voice, Video and Vision)
March 19-22 ~ San Jose, CA
A conference founded by Jeff Pulver, VON has built a community on the evolution and convergence of IP communication technologies. Find out the latest industry news about VoIP, IPTV, Fixed Mobile Convergence, IMS and much more.

AJAXWorld
March 19-21 ~ New York, NY
The most comprehensive meeting on the most significant technology subjects of recent times: AJAX, Rich Internet Apps & Web 2.0.

Information Architecture Summit 2007
March 22-26 ~ Las Vegas, NV
A premier gathering place for information architects and for discussion about information architecture. Everyone who touches on IA is welcome to share and learn. Last year's IA Summit attracted over 500 attendees, including beginners, experienced IAs, and people in a range of related fields.

An Event Apart
March 26-27 ~ Boston, MA
Hear from the top people in the field as they discuss best practices in web design and development. Not only design and coding, but usability, accessibility, and more.

APRIL
Search Engine Strategies NY
April 10-13 ~ New York, NY
The industry converges for a week of spirited discussion, high-level learning and attendees leave with actionable battle plans to go forward with for their companies.

Web 2.0 Expo 2007
April 15-18 ~ San Francisco, CA
A companion event to the Web 2.0 Summit, Web 2.0 Expo is the first event specifically designed to help teach Web 2.0 techniques and best practices to people in the trenches directly involved in the design, development, engineering, marketing, and business of second-generation internet technology.

Gel 2007
April 19-20 ~ New York, NY
Gel ("Good Experience Live") is a conference and community exploring good experience in all its forms -- in business, art, society, technology, and life.

CHI 2007 Reach Beyond
April 28 - May 3  ~  San Jose, CA
Computer/Human Interaction or CHI for short is the premiere conference in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Every year, it is a venue for 2000 HCI professionals, academics, and students to discuss HCI issues and research and make lasting connections in the HCI community. In addition, 40-50 industry exhibitors attend CHI to showcase their user experience products and departments and to recruit professionals to enhance their business.

MAY
World Wide Web Conference
May 8-12 ~ Banff, Alberta - CA
The World Wide Web Conference is the global event that brings together the key innovators, decision-makers, technologists, businesses, and standards bodies shaping the Web.

Streaming Media East
May 15-16 ~ New York, NY
Covers both the business of video on the net and the technology of streaming, downloading, IPTV and mobile video delivery. Covering both b2b and b2c business and technology issues in the enterprise, advertising, media and entertainment, broadcast and education markets.

Where 2.0
May 29-30 ~ San Jose, CA
Brings together the people, projects, and issues building the new technological foundations and creating value in the location industry. A great place to meet the people behind the mash-ups and platforms, and the folks looking ahead to the future of geospace.

Mesh
May 30-31 ~ Toronto, Ontario - Canada
Hear from thought leaders, connect with peers, and get a better understanding of the impact of new developments online. mesh brings together people who are passionate about the potential of the Web to change how we live, work and play. Meet the next generation of Web ideas, leaders and companies at mesh.

JUNE

 The Next Web Conference
June 1 ~ Amsterdam, Netherlands
A must attend for every forward thinking CEO, Internet Entrepreneur, Strategy Planner, Top Notch Consultant and Venture Capitalist in Europe and a great networking opportunity. This event has an all-star cast of speakers as well.

Digital Hollywood Spring
June 11-14 ~ Santa Monica, CA
The Premier Event for Transforming Entertainment, Technology & the global communications network: TV, cable, telco, mobile, broadband, consumer electronics, search & email, VoIP, RSS, blogs and web sites.

Search Engine Strategies Latino
June 18-19 ~ Miami, FL
The industry converges for a week of spirited discussion, high-level learning and attendees leave with actionable battle plans to go forward with for their companies.

Supernova 2007
June 20-22 ~ San Francisco, CA
Challenge your insights and predictions for the connected future with some of the top technology and business influencers, leading investors, visionary entrepreneurs, and provocative thinkers debating the major emerging trends in computing, communications, and media. Here is a sliver of coverage from Supernova 2006.

JULY

CommunityNext
July 14th ~ Palo Alto, CA
The premier conference on how successful online communities and social networks build, grow and monetize. Go viral!!!

AUGUST
Gnomedex 7.0
August 9-11 ~ Seattle, WA
Hosted by Chris Pirillo this technology conference pulls together the leading bloggers and social media industry leaders. Attendees from years past have grown accustomed to this experience - finding it refreshing and genuine. They created a conference that seemingly broke ALL the rules.

Search Engine Strategies San Jose
August 20-23 ~ San Jose, CA
The industry converges for a week of spirited discussion, high-level learning and attendees leave with actionable battle plans to go forward with for their companies.

Adaptive Path Washington: UX
TBD ~ Washington, DC
User Experience Week 2007 with all new material full of indispensable training, stimulating discussion, and fantastic networking opportunities.

SEPTEMBER
euroGel 2007
September 6-7 ~ Copenhagen, Denmark
euroGel is a European version of Gel ("Good Experience Live") conference and community exploring good experience in all its forms -- in business, art, society, technology, and life.

TechCrunch20 Conference 2007
September 17 - 18 ~ San Francisco, CA
Twenty of the hottest new startups will announce and demo their products over a two day period. And they don’t pay a cent to do this. They will be selected to participate based on merit alone.

Digital ID World 2007
September 23-26 ~ San Francisco, CA
A source for the straight talk, hard-won lessons, and practical insight derived from real-world deployments. Our focus is simple: putting enterprise IT professionals onstage to give you their unvarnished views on what it took to achieve success with their identity deployments. Digital ID World is the industry event for learning how to help manage your business with identity.

Podcast & New Media Expo
September 28-30 ~ Ontario, CA
Event that brings together influential audio and video podcasters, digital media creators, and bloggers to cover the complete range of creation techniques, business objectives and future trends.

OCTOBER
Web 2.0 Summit
October 17-19 ~ San Francisco, CA
Focuses on emerging business and technology developments that utilize the Web as a platform and defines how the Web will drive business in the future. 

NOVEMBER
Streaming Media West
November 6-8 ~ TBD
Covers both the business of video on the net and the technology of streaming, downloading, IPTV and mobile video delivery. Covering both b2b and b2c business and technology issues in the enterprise, advertising, media and entertainment, broadcast and education markets.

DECEMBER
Search Engine Strategies 2007
December 3-6 ~ Chicago, IL
The industry converges for a week of spirited discussion, high-level learning and attendees leave with actionable battle plans to go forward with for their companies.

Happy conferencing in 2007!

Constituent Dynamics Polls For Predictive Election Results

A few weeks ago I profiled The Washington Stock Exchange, a new site offering political junkies the opportunity to play in a special stock exchange dedicated to political probabilities.  With just over two weeks remaining until election day, there have been a number of political sites emerging to better tell the election story.

Constituent Dynamics offers an amazingly in depth look at the political reality.  The site focuses on new polling methods to produce more accurate and predictive results.  While targeted toward professional political operatives, the Majority Watch project offers an impressive look at the midterm elections that any lay-man can enjoy.  Majority Watch features updating polling data for key races, with more being added everyday plotted on a map (shown below). Similarly, Google has also recently rolled out their own election focused mashup which combines Google Earth with information about the upcoming congressional elections.

If you are looking for election news, Constituent Dynamics offers more information than is offered on many mainstream news site, you can select an individual District to view demographic breakdowns and side-by-side data comparing the midterm race against the last presidential election.  All said, it is an impressive site for anyone interested in politics in general, or this year's tumultuous midterm elections in particular. Of course, if you are looking for additional content and analysis, you might want to visit The Stump - AOL News Elections Blog, AOL's recently launched elections blog.

MapQuest Adds Draggable Maps at Last

MapQuest, the dinosaur of a now crowded field of online mapping services, has finally launched draggable maps. I wrote a map comparison review for TechCrunch in April 2006 and MapQuest did not fair very well in the navigational feature comparison.

Draggable maps should at least put MapQuest back on the same playing field from a usability standpoint. Not to mention, with draggable maps developers might be more inclined to leverage MapQuest's API's to produce creative mashups.

MapQuest also recently added a Navigator which could act as a GPS system in the palm of your hand. It costs $9.99 a month and is available on Sprint Nextel mobile phones.

Bottomline: MapQuest has been busy adding new features to keep up with a competitive online mapping industry. I wonder what features will come next? Satellite images?

Sam Sebastian Speaks About Google Local

Sam Sebastian, director of Classifieds & Local at Google, spoke at a lunch engagement today (August 15, 2006) at his former employer Classified Ventures in Chicago, Illinois. Sam heads a sales team that focuses on developing working relationships with real estate companies and other local advertisers to advocate the use of Google Adwords and other products.

Sam talked about the growth of Google which included his arrival in April. Sam left Classified Ventures in April 2006 after leading Homescape for seven years. Sam expressed his feeling on his new role and Google Local by saying:

"Google Local is the least sexy of the verticals which is perfect for me."

He went on to say that Google currently has 8,000 employees and is hiring 12 new employees a day. So obviously, the company is growing quickly to handle all the different directions that Google is going.

Sam is not a product engineer and is slightly removed from the Googleplex brain-trust (Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt and Marissa Mayer), so he did not too many "nitty gritty" product details to report. Though, he did express the importance that Google puts on staying on top in search. He explained the 70/20/10 rule that engineers are to follow at Google. The rule has engineers working on search 70% of their time, working on other Google products 20% and working on whatever projects they want 10% of the time (not necessarily Google related). Sam highlighted Google's focus and attention on video and mobile space. He also pointed to the release of a new Google Local product, Google Local Coupons, which was reportedly launched today.

During the Q & A session the audience most notably asked about the Google Base strategy which includes an integrated search widget which could pose as a potential threat to the online classified business. Sam explained how Google is not looking to get into the business of selling the job, car and real estate listings but instead wants to aggregate the listings into its search results. Google would then be able to return more granular listings that send traffic back to the original listing web site. Google is trying to push the adoption of Google Base to build up its result sets in local markets by both educating local businesses and making it free to anyone with a listings feed. Both initiatives could be a threat to the online classified business since most business models in the space are built around the premise that someone pays to place a listing online. However, Sam specifically explained Google is not looking to attack the online classified business but instead help them generate more search traffic via Google search so it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Flickr Tying Tagging to Local Maps?

Flickr may be offering a new geotagging feature soon which could allow users to be tagged based on geography. This feature is said to combine mapping with the drag and drop of photos which could help to combine Yahoo Local and Flickr. There is a screen shot here.

I am a big Flickr fan as I mentioned previously. I have been thinking that the ability to make photos search-able by location would be a pretty sweet feature adding another way to rifle through the countless Flickr photos of people, places and things.  Additionally, it might be interesting to be able to search on people's profiles. For example, I wanted to find all the Chicago photographers on Flickr it is currently a daunting task. I hope the Flickr "map" tab is more than just a rumor and maybe down the road Flickr will add the profile search too.

Yahoo Teams With Zillow For Zestimates

Yahoo! Real Estate and Yahoo! Search have partnered with the  startup Zillow to help push out  its Zestimates (Zillow contrived property value estimates) to the masses. I recently encountered them integrated into the new Yahoo homepage as a Featured item (as shown below).

According to a post on the Yahoo! Search blog, the integration is a mashup of several of Yahoo's services. It uses Yahoo! Search to perform the search, Yahoo! Maps to display the location and even offered links to Yahoo! Answers for users looking for additional home value information. Using Yahoo! Maps is new to Zillow since its core product uses Microsoft's Live Local mapping solution which offers "Bird's Eye View." I highlighted Zillow and the feature in this post I wrote for TechCrunch comparing the online mapping services. The "Bird's Eye View" feature helped Zillow get some early buzz so I wonder if Yahoo has anything similar in the works.

This appears to be a great partnership for Zillow and meshes with its mission:

"To give as many consumers as possible access to free real estate information."

Yahoo draws a lot of traffic and this deal puts Zillow in the spotlight but clearly the service is not yet perfect. In performing a few searches on homes in my local area the I encountered many empty search result sets as the search could not find the property I requested. Also some Zestimates are displaying some fuzzy numbers which are not correct. However, if Zillow can patch up these types of empty result sets and tighten its fuzzy numbers, Zillow is in a position to become "the source" for online property information.

Google Search Adds Local & Map Info

Google continued to make proximity a priority today (July 18, 2006) as it has added map images within search results. When searching on Google for certain keywords or search terms you will find that the first result returned will display local results with map images which are associates to the location of the first result. Basically, Google Local has been merged into the regular web search results. I performed a search for "Clarke's Diner Chicago" and have displayed the search results for both Google and Google local below.

Searcher might also encounter a text box which allows them to search Google Base for listings related to the previous search. In performing a search on "Chicago Apartment" and was present a few extra text boxes as shown below.

This is not the case for every city. For example if you perform a search for "DC Apartments" the text boxes do not appear - which probably means Google Base does not have enough data to make enabling the extra hook worthwhile.

The described Google search result tweaks increase the importance to being listed in Google Local and Google Base since it should ensure top listing in direct searches for a local business. For details on how to get listed in Google Local check out this great post by Brad Gedde's.

Ning Improves With Sidebar Removal

Ning, the online application development toolkit, according to a recent TechCrunch report has made:

"...a significant change to their application interface on Friday, removing the mandatory sidebar on applications and replacing it with a fully customizable javascript bar across the top of the page."

As creator of the Team Sports Bars Ning application, the removal of the formerly manadatory sidebar is a great improvement to the overall presentation of the application platform. Collapsing the javascript bar across the top of the page takes up less online real estate; expanding it adds utilites that promote and market other Ning applications based on the new viewing statistics on application populatity. Ning has come a long way since I previously reviewed it on Somewhat Frank.

Google SketchUp For 3D Is Free

Google has taken its recent acquisition of @LastSoftware  which was snagged up with 3D dreams last month and offered it via download to the masses as Google SketchUp. This new version makes it easy for users to create 3D drawings of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects - among other things. Google will still support a more sophisticated version for architects and engineers called SketchUp Pro 5 via plug-ins.

The Google blog offers up a  warning to new Google SketchUp users as follows:

"Warning: don’t start messing with this stuff after dinner because your first experience could be an all-nighter… making an idea come to life in 3D can be very addicting."

I will keep this in mind as I look to give it a whirl but in the meantime you can see other SketchUp user creations by visiting and searching through the newly created Google 3D Warehouse. I assume Google is looking to benefit by empowering the online community to pitch in with developing 3D models of landmarks which could then be added to Google Earth.