Notes at random:
Safari is saving the .kml files as *.kml.xml, which has to be manually corrected before Google Earth will eat them. Everything works fine in MSIE on Windows — although the sentence as a whole is an oxymoron.
AgentEarth.com has my vote for coolest gross concept — with caveats.
As in: Google Earth is all toy, no tool. What we have is a front end into Google Base real estate listings, and that by itself is very, very cool.
But: Google Base is a retarded way to feed real estate listings. It actually make Craig’s List look useful, which ain’t easy.
Plus which, the Google Earth interface for dealing with search results is an Olympics of egg-sucking. If you’re looking for just about anything, you’re sure to find it. If you’re looking for something specific, be prepared to hunt.
Nevertheless: The mapping rocks.
Give me more search power on the front end — more specificity — then show me everything, as with ShackYack.com, Trulia.com, etc.
Give me a better database to begin with. It may be that Google Base will grow up to be a real real estate database. For now, if I had this mapping on Trulia.com, Redfin.com would be a filleted fish with no CheezWhiz left in the can…
Still: Amazingly cool.
Final thought: The competitive viability of any one of these incredible tools is measured in microseconds… Yikes!
Technorati Tags: disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing
Joel Burslem says:
Propsmart and Point2Homes give you KML files as well. I’m surprised Trulia doesn’t have them yet.
I love Google Earth 3d environment and can’t wait for more companies to use it to do virtual property tours.
August 24, 2006 — 2:22 pm
susan carls says:
The new version of Earthscape (v 2.0) on the iphone can now upload KLM files, so listings data can be viewed. Earthscape is similar to Google Earth on the iphone i.e. with high resolution imagery for the US, faster loading and faster frame rates than other mobile geobrowsers. It has a slightly different orientation i.e. live photo posting. Right now you can’t post KLM files on Google Earth for the iphone only on Earthscape.
November 25, 2008 — 11:01 pm