I went to John L. Scott’s website the other day look at homes in Eugene, OR. I went to school there (University of Oregon) and when civil society seems near the breaking point here in the Bay Area, as it has recently, I sometimes think about moving back.
My daydream didn’t last long. I quickly got tangled up in their new "Neighborhood Wizard" feature:
I tried multiple times to carve out an area on the south side of town I remember being particularly nice. But no success. Now, I sit in front of a computer 12 hours a day. I’m pretty comfortable with the web. But this was beyond me.
It made me wonder if mapping in real estate has jumped the shark. Or if map fetishes run rampant in brokerage IT departments. Or if someone sent out the word back in 2001 that mapping listings was a universal good not to be questioned.
Or it was user error.
I am not alone in raising this question. Joel Burslem weighed in on the shortcomings of map-based real estate search when John L. Scott first launched Neighborhood Wizard a couple months ago.
If I am a relo client, unfamiliar with a city, drawing a polygon on top of a map I can’t interpret doesn’t do me much good. If I’m local, I’d be better searching by neighborhood name – something now possible on many sites.
This is not a knock on John L. Scott. We all know they’ve led the way on many technologies. My point is that we should perhaps focus on the elegance of online real estate applications rather than on how many features or data points we can cram into them.
– Brian Boero
Sign up for the 1000watt Spotlight e-newsletter
and keep up with the ideas, apps and people that are changing real estate.
15 Ways to Make Your Marketing Mobile
A mist of difference
10 Tools for MLS Awesomeness
There's nothing like an idea ahead of its time, right? Of course, in this case its perhaps just an idea ahead of its seamless, intuitive implementation.
Kudos are well deserved for JLS in getting something out there ahead of the crowd. Unfortunately, as with most early releases, we see a variety of bugs and design issues.
The goal of map based search *should* be twofold:
1. make searching easier
2. allow the end user provide location information to the website in a simple manner so that the website can respond with the best, most localized and relevant information possible.
There are LOTS of ways to improve upon what JLS has done, and we at OnBoard have in fact been working with our clients to implement many of them.
A *great* mapping interface requires creativity and vision and an understanding of how the typical end user would like to interact with your website. All of this takes careful thought and implementation – something lacking in most of the map solutions we see in Real Estate to date….
Sometimes it pays to reach outside the organization to other parties who can bring that expertise to the table.
- Pete
http://www.onboardllc.com
I too found the search results odd and/or irrelevant. In my opinion, the layout is not done in the way that the eye wants to read results.
I do like the inclusion of the company logo for quick brand recognition.
Anyone know what they intend to offer for PPC or SEO options should they take off?
I too found the search results odd and/or irrelevant. In my opinion, the layout is not done in the way that the eye wants to read results.
I do like the inclusion of the company logo for quick brand recognition.
Anyone know what they intend to offer for PPC or SEO options should they take off?
My brother in law would appreciate this post. We were not too long ago talking about this. lol
Comfortabl y, the article is actually the sweetest topic on the best registry cleaner in 2009. I concur with your conclusions and will thirstily look forward to your incoming updates. Just saying thanks will not just be sufficient, for the tremendous lucidity in your writing. I will directly grab your rss feed to stay abreast of any updates.