{"id":1726,"date":"2007-08-02T08:28:19","date_gmt":"2007-08-02T15:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1726"},"modified":"2007-08-02T08:28:33","modified_gmt":"2007-08-02T15:28:33","slug":"how-do-you-define-a-neighborhood-you-dont-how-do-you-obtain-neighborhood-expertise-go-to-neighborhood-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1726\/how-do-you-define-a-neighborhood-you-dont-how-do-you-obtain-neighborhood-expertise-go-to-neighborhood-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"How do you define a neighborhood? You don’t. How do you obtain neighborhood expertise? Go to neighborhood expert."},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m quoting from David Gibbons from Zillow.com. He wrote these remarks in a comment<\/a>, but I’m pulling them out because it’s an interesting topic: How can web-based vendors build databases of neighborhood expertise?<\/p>\n

What you are seeing in the neighborhood space is the lack of any predefined neighborhood database. It’s never been done before and so, while there’s a great place to start when building a taxonomy of regions at any other level, neighborhoods are tough to build.<\/p>\n

The 6,500 neighborhoods currently defined on Zillow were done by hand. We’ve talked this through with outside.in – they took the same approach. The solution is to allow homeowners to collaboratively describe their neighborhoods and we’ll iterate towards that but even homeowners seldom agree on neighborhood designations and boundaries. It’s an interesting problem to solve.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s what I<\/i> said. This is me when Zillow 6 was released:<\/a><\/p>\n

What does all this have to do with Zillow.com?<\/p>\n

I think they’ve made a mistake in their approach to community building, a mistake that will prevent a true community from emerging from all their efforts.<\/p>\n

As an example, what is a neighborhood? It’s not what Zillow says it is, and it’s not what some city council says it is. A neighborhood is what the neighbors say it is, and, as in my North Central Phoenix neighborhood, neighbors can differ about what the neighborhood really is.<\/p>\n

So how should Zillow define the neighborhoods it hopes end-users will create content around?<\/p>\n

It shouldn’t. It should let the users define the neighborhoods, and if there are different interpretations of what the neighborhood is, it should allow the proponents of those different ideas to create multiple competing neighborhood descriptions. When one starts to draw all the attention and the other fades away, Zillow can snuff the loser. Until then, the neighborhood advocates will have an investment in creating content for Zillow, and an avid interest in getting their friends to the site to show off what they have created.<\/p>\n

In other words, they will have created a virtual analogue of their neighborhood as a means of defining and describing it. This is an atom-sized on-line community, an acorn from Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m quoting from David Gibbons from Zillow.com. He wrote these remarks in a comment, but I’m pulling them out because it’s an interesting topic: How can web-based vendors build databases of neighborhood expertise? What you are seeing in the neighborhood space is the lack of any predefined neighborhood database. It’s never been done before and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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":""},"categories":[4,6,5,19,25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-disintermediation","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-real-estate","9":"category-technology","10":"category-zillowcom","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1646,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1646\/zillowcoms-latest-release-me-toos-truliacoms-recent-me-too-release-can-either-make-the-leap-from-ghost-town-to-community\/","url_meta":{"origin":1726,"position":0},"title":"Zillow.com’s latest release me-too’s Trulia.com’s recent me-too release: Can either make the leap from ghost-town to community?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"With its Z6 software release, which goes live tonight, Zillow.com adds a neighborhood level of user conversations, similar to Trulia.com's Trulia Voices feature released in May of this year. From Zillow's press release:Real estate Web site Zillow.com today added a number of new community features, opening up the site even\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":[]},{"id":1649,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1649\/what-might-make-the-idea-of-community-work-on-zillowcom-the-individual-autonomy-we-have-learned-to-expect-on-the-internet\/","url_meta":{"origin":1726,"position":1},"title":"What might make the idea of community work on Zillow.com? The individual autonomy we have learned to expect on the internet","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We live and work right on the Arizona Canal in North Central Phoenix. North Central is a nebulous geographical region. Properly speaking, it runs from Seventh Street to Seventh Avenue, Missouri Street to the Canal. Within those boundaries, you will find some of the most prosperous and powerful people in\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":[]},{"id":343,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/343\/ask-the-broker-where-can-you-go-to-get-the-most-accurate-estimates-for-real-estate\/","url_meta":{"origin":1726,"position":2},"title":"Ask the Broker: Where can you go to get the most accurate estimates for real estate?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Who can best judge what a piece of real property will sell for? We all know the answer to that: The best estimate of the value of real estate will come from an experienced real estate appraiser, preferably one with a lot of experience in the neighborhood where the subject\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ask the Broker"","block_context":{"text":"Ask the Broker","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/ask-the-broker\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1288,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1288\/zadvertising-on-zillowcom\/","url_meta":{"origin":1726,"position":3},"title":"Zadvertising on Zillow.com","author":"Brian Brady","date":"April 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm pleased with the first week's run of my EZ Ads on Zillow; my hypotheses were mostly correct and I received a $500 loan commission from the ads. I'm making ten times the investment so that works for me. From Zillow: Loans For Long Beach \u00a0 04\/05\/2007 04\/12\/2007 774 2\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2222,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2222\/zillowcom-enables-listing-agents-to-pee-on-the-tree-perpetually\/","url_meta":{"origin":1726,"position":4},"title":"Zillow.com enables listing agents to pee on the tree perpetually","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"There has been a ton of Zillow.com \"news\" lately, but mainly I've been ignoring it. News is news when it is something other than PR -- free advertising for the company pushing the press release. In other words, what's-in-it-for-me? -- or for you or for anyone other than the owners\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":[]},{"id":1582,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1582\/utterly-brilliant-just-sold-postcards-on-zillowcom\/","url_meta":{"origin":1726,"position":5},"title":"Utterly brilliant: “Just Sold” ‘postcards’ on Zillow.com","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Zillow blog. Advertise yourself as a lister in the neighborhoods you farm in a venue we know is strongly appealing to sellers. This is so smart it makes my brain ache... Later: Adopted. Whole-heartedly and with alacrity. I need for you to be shopping for what I'm selling, or else\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726","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=1726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}