BlueRoof.com has a new map searching interface, combining a number of good ideas from other interfaces with the company’s great design sense.
The interface features the slider controls seen in ShackYack.com‘s search tool. Unlike that system, though, BlueRoof.com does not get bogged down trying to display more listings than its underlying software can handle. If your search results in too many results, you are invited to narrow it.
The search area is defined by the visible portion of the map, however, which implies that, if you don’t already know where you want to be, you can’t use a relatively unfocused search to seek out neighborhoods in your price range. We’re sweltering under heat maps just now, and that would be a simple solution here.
The BlueRoof.com interface uses three different kinds of house icons to indicate active listings: A green roof is MLS-listed, a blue roof is a FSBO, and a blue roof with an avatar out front is a FSBO with broker participation. This is an idea we had talked about when first we saw the ShackYack interface — adding to it ShackYack’s idea of using color intensity as a one-glance method of comparing relative prices.
Things I don’t like:
I want more search tools, even if they come in a pop-down tab to make things simple for the punters.
I want to be able to get a feel of the whole housing market, even if I can’t see houses without narrowing down by area.
I have a huge screen, but I still get a small map. I think the page is being built to conform to BlueRoof.com’s toolbar (which is gorgeous), rather than growing to the available screen real estate.
I could not get to the detail page on any house. (Mac OSX 10.4.7, Safari 2.0.4)
Overall: Very pretty. I think this is the new high bar for map search interfaces. Considering the money in play at the Goliath-like realty.bot sites, BlueRoof.com is David triumphant today…
Technorati Tags: disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing
Greg says:
Greg- I appreciate the praise, and I especially appreciate the great suggestions. We plan to offer more ways to search, which will probably be under the BUY A HOME tab, or with a simple button choice below the sliders.
The challenge is increasing the value and information, while keeping each page clean, simple, and uncluttered. I do not like sites that are cluttered or complex. Also on the maps I don’t like when the homephoto shows up and covers the homes you are looking at.
We hope to have a few new pages up within the next week or so.
The site has been created on MAC, with Firefox being the main browser we test, and then we follow the testing with IE and a few other broswers. Safari users are such a small percentage of total visitors that we have not made that a priority yet. Eventually we hope to have Safari under the umbrella. We’re also putting a sniffer on the site and moving the loading animation so it is on the map- some people have told me they do not notice it above te map, where it currently is.
Thanks again for the feedback
Greg Tracy
October 1, 2006 — 1:32 pm
Greg Swann says:
I have been playing with this in every spare minute all day long. I do love it.
I can get the details on FSBOs, just not MLS listings. Go figure.
October 1, 2006 — 4:24 pm
anon says:
how are they able to list fsbo properties alongside mls listings?
October 2, 2006 — 2:04 pm
Greg Swann says:
> how are they able to list fsbo properties alongside mls listings?
They don’t. You select one or the other by radio button. If you’re looking at MLS listings, FSBOs are excluded and vice versa.
October 2, 2006 — 4:25 pm
anon says:
for me, listing them on the same site separated by a minor “switch” (radio button) is the same as listing them alongside each other. i wonder what the central utah mls system thinks about that.
for that matter, i wonder what the different california mls systems think about shackyack’s policy of listing days on market along with commentary on properties. i thought both of these were strictly forbidden.
October 2, 2006 — 6:34 pm
Greg Swann says:
> for me, listing them on the same site separated by a minor “switch” (radio button) is the same as listing them alongside each other.
Except for your not being able to see them at the same time. If I were asked to rule on this, I would call it a bright-line separation of listings — a very clever solution to the problem.
> i wonder what the central utah mls system thinks about that.
Their business, no?
> i wonder what the different california mls systems think about shackyack’s policy of listing days on market along with commentary on properties.
Again, their business. If ShackYack is in violation, you can be sure some local member will try to use that as a pretext to shut them down. Nothing wears out the pages of the rulebook faster than the threat of innovation.
October 2, 2006 — 7:41 pm