Noteworthy

Interesting that Trulia shrunk the map…

on the default search results pages (i.e city pages) such as this one for Calabasas. In a timely coincidence, there was a good discussion earlier today on the post about neighborhood mapping
, where Jessie B pointed out that maps are really valuable for only a small subset of people moving to a new area.

(via Trulia Blog) 

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  3. Rumors spread that Trulia is getting Prudential’s Listings

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4 responses

  1. Jessie B Avatar
    Jessie B

    In Oct. 2005 (pre-trulia / zillow) we had rolled a map search function (and google earth kmls for each property) for forsalebyownercenter.com. Although a nice touch and got lots of link love from the tech community we found that users still liked traditional list and gave them the map search function as they narrowed results. I would venture that Dustin may have insight into the usage of map search on the big R vs. traditional list also, which maybe why R keeps the option open for the user and why T is reducing the size of their map.

    My feelings regarding usability, the best experience is that the initial search for users is done by looking at homes that attract them visually via a list or grid view for the whole city, then once they narrowed down the list, the map should become more prevalent as you have lesser results and it’s not as overwhelming. This is where the overlays also become more useful for users.

    Reply
  2. Dustin Avatar
    Dustin

    Jessie: Interesting, I was just answering a question from Jim when I noticed that realtor.com just launched a new beta site. The new site doesn’t even prompt users for a map view, but rather defaults to a list view.

    Reply
  3. Real Estate Search Tit for Tat : Future of Real Estate Marketing

    […] the new release is that Trulia, unlike Zillow, has shrunk the default size of its map results (see Trulia shrunk the map). They’ve chosen to rely instead on a hierarchal list of properties, rather than the […]

    Reply
  4. Jessie B Avatar
    Jessie B

    Talk about timing…

    “attract them visually via a list or grid view for the whole city, then once they narrowed down the list, the map should become more prevalent as you have lesser results…”

    Today’s REALTOR.com New beta has a Gallery view, which is a really nice, then provides users the ability to map each individual property.

    Reply

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