Trulia, the real estate search engine and community, has released Snapshot, a new interactive housing map that is a bit more fun than it should be.
Snapshot overlays a Microsoft Virtual Earth map with thumbnails of houses on the market. Each image hovers over its proper location on the map, and users can drag them around to get a better look at the terrain if some houses are too close together. After releasing the image, it snaps back into place - complete with a nice jiggle.
Users can move a sliding bar to set the price range of houses that appear on the map. As each house appears, it enthusiastically pushes nearby pictures out of the way, leading to lots of totally useless (but fun) bouncing. There’s also a slideshow function that lets you sit back and watch as this odd combination of real estate and Jello does its own thing.
Snapshot does have some more practical functions. Clicking on a photo will present more detailed information, including the price and a link to the realtor. And the sliding price limits are handy for getting a feel for what’s available in a neighborhood. That said, there doesn’t seem to be much in Snapshot that wasn’t already on Trulia already, it just presents it in a more visually appealing way.
Trulia was founded in 2004 and has raised nearly $18 million in funding, with investors including Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners. Other competitors in this space include Redfin, Zillow, and Roost.
wow! it is totally crazy and it works
+ clear + simple = absolutely top !
clear + simple - usefulness = absolutely waste of time
As someone who has been involved in actively selling and buying in the Chicago area for the past five years (three transactions don’t ask!) I use lots of real estate online tools.
This does NOTHING to help a home shopper. You can’t narrow down price just scroll.
I gave up after a few minutes. I think TC totally missed it here. Until you can put in the basics - price and bedroom count - there’s no point. At least in big areas like Chicago.
@Mogilny and Dave T.
I think you guys are sort of missing the point. It’s eyecandy - it isn’t a revolutionary new app or feature. It just sits and looks nice.
@Jason
Yep, thanks, we think it’s cool and we like cool things
@Dave T.
I agree for the serious home shopper you might want to use the price and bedroom filters on the left on our main site here: http://www.trulia.com/IL/Chicago/ you can also filter on all sort of other things including keywords. You can also ask and answer questions with local home owners, buyers, sellers and agents here: http://www.trulia.com/voices/C.....158– . Snapshot is meant to be complementary to our main search engine, not to replace it. Enjoy!
@Pete
Well done. Fantastically cool app. Very nice.
@Dave
Those features can pretty easily be bolted on. The scroller can easily work similarly to Globrix.com, and adding a few filters is pretty easy.
Snapshot looks cool…
@ Dave T.
If you are looking for more listing data, Cyberhomes just relaunched with 2.5 million listings, combined with valuations and full neighborhood analysis. Check it out. http://www.cyberhomes.com
Well said Pete
Rudy
Social Media Guru at Trulia
Seems like something that could be fun for many home buyers and home lookers. It’s definitely eye candy and if it’s meant to supplement the search capabilities that they already have, I think it’s a nice new feature.
This is very cool, and a heck of a lot more fun than the normal Zillow/Trulia maps views.
Well done… I think trulia is really setting the standards for map based real estate applications.. I was inspired by trulia so much that I decided to bring the concept to Singapore
I think it’s a little too much for me… It’s really cool and fun to play with, but just to much going on with the moving pictures.
If your looking for a good site to look for Chicago real estate I use http://www.dreamtown.com.
JoshA