Cathy had lunch today with a friend and ex-colleague. Cathy was talking about Zillow.com as a Web 2.0 phenomenon, and her friend was having trouble wrapping her mind around the idea of Web 2.0.<\/p>\n
I sent her mail when I heard about this, summarizing and quoting from the seminal Tim O’Reilly article<\/a>:<\/p>\n In an elevator speech: Web 2.0 creates an ongoing community of active users by integrating a user-modifiable database through an interactive, as opposed to static, web-based interface.<\/p>\n This is O’Reilly’s summary:<\/p>\n Web 2.0 Design Patterns<\/b><\/p>\n In his book, A Pattern Language<\/a>, Christopher Alexander prescribes a format for the concise description of the solution to architectural problems. He writes: “Each pattern describes a problem that occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice.”<\/p>\n Cathy had lunch today with a friend and ex-colleague. Cathy was talking about Zillow.com as a Web 2.0 phenomenon, and her friend was having trouble wrapping her mind around the idea of Web 2.0. I sent her mail when I heard about this, summarizing and quoting from the seminal Tim O’Reilly article: In an elevator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,5,19,25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","7":"category-real-estate","8":"category-technology","9":"category-zillowcom","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":574,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/574\/welcome-to-race-piracy-20-zillowcom-is-targetted-for-the-crime-of-having-deep-pockets\/","url_meta":{"origin":1269,"position":0},"title":"Welcome to Race Piracy 2.0: Zillow.com is targetted for the crime of having deep pockets . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Heads up, folks. It's a shake-down. Poor Zillow.com has gotten itself caught up in a classic Jesse Jackson-style shake-down. This is specious bullshit, and everyone who cares about justice -- and about not having the rest of the net raped by posturing diversity pirates -- should line up with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":597,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/597\/the-zillowcom-shake-down-at-last-a-discouraging-word-about-ncrc\/","url_meta":{"origin":1269,"position":1},"title":"The Zillow.com shake-down: At last a discouraging word about NCRC . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"All right, it might be a little naive, but it's something. From the Square Feet Blog at the San Jose Mercury News:So why has the NCRC decided to announce that Zillow is putting the American Dream in peril? What do you think? Genuine concern for consumers, or or just pining\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2664,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2664\/zillowcom-announces-its-sponsorship-of-bloodhoundblog-unchained\/","url_meta":{"origin":1269,"position":2},"title":"Zillow.com announces its sponsorship of BloodhoundBlog Unchained","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"BloodhoundBlog has grown up with Zillow.com. We're consistently second or third on a Google search for Zillow.com, and Debunking Zillow.com is one percent or more of our traffic every day. On the other hand, we've also been big boosters of the tools Zillow has built to help sellers, buyers and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":580,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/580\/zillowcom-shade-down-creeping-disclaimerism-as-a-subject-changing-gambit\/","url_meta":{"origin":1269,"position":3},"title":"Zillow.com shake-down: Creeping disclaimerism as a subject-changing gambit . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Whatever. Just don't pay them off. The issue is a lot bigger than Zillow.com, and Net Exceptionalism is too important an idea to be squandered. Even if you don't know who your friends are, I will hang with you if you will hang tough... Our story so far:Welcome to Race\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":575,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/575\/zillowcom-shake-down-this-is-the-first-shoe-dropping\/","url_meta":{"origin":1269,"position":4},"title":"Zillow.com shake-down: This is the first shoe dropping . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"John Cook, Seattle Post-Intelligencer:Zillow has contacted the NCRC, and the two plan to meet soon, Berenbaum said. He expressed confidence that they can resolve the issues in a way that benefits the entire home valuation industry.Actually, the complaint made me think that Yahoo.com is going to have to cough up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":754,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/754\/zillowcom-versus-realtorcom-nothing-grows-in-the-shade-of-great-tree\/","url_meta":{"origin":1269,"position":5},"title":"Zillow.com versus Realtor.com: Nothing grows in the shade of great tree . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 9, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I think part of the problem, in understanding the radical nature of what Zillow.com did this week, is that we are conflating unlike things. As an example, when I speak of a National MLS, I am not talking about local MLS systems. For one thing, the sine qua non purpose\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nSmall sites make up the bulk of the internet’s content; narrow niches make up the bulk of internet’s the possible applications. Therefore:<\/em> Leverage customer-self service and algorithmic data management to reach out to the entire web, to the edges and not just the center, to the long tail and not just the head.<\/li>\n
\nApplications are increasingly data-driven. Therefore<\/em>: For competitive advantage, seek to own a unique, hard-to-recreate source of data.<\/li>\n
\nThe key to competitive advantage in internet applications is the extent to which users add their own data to that which you provide. Therefore<\/em>: Don’t restrict your “architecture of participation” to software development. Involve your users both implicitly and explicitly in adding value to your application.<\/li>\n
\nOnly a small percentage of users will go to the trouble of adding value to your application. Therefore<\/em>: Set inclusive defaults for aggregating user data as a side-effect of their use of the application.<\/li>\n