Redfin Retools Around Virtual Earth
Redfin relaunched this morning with a brand new mapping interface using Microsoft Virtual Earth platform. They’ve retired the old Flash based maps, which frankly were looking a little long in the tooth.
By moving to the Virtual Earth API, Redfin can now concentrate on building out new features on the site. Redfin’s blog gives a good overview of why they choose to go with Microsoft over Google.
First impressions, I like it, but…
Redfin’s web site now looks like everyone else’s. Rival Seattle-based broker John L. Scott, for instance, uses the same Virtual Earth technology. Now, I never liked the old Flash maps and am happy to see them gone, but the result unfortunately is the new site has a pretty generic feel to it.
The new house icons are a significant improvement over the previously highlighted parcels, but the green house pins feel a little disjointed from the rest of Redfin’s branding - Maybe they should have been red? (They do kind of remind me of the houses in Monopoly though.) Finally, there’s no obvious difference between a single family or multi-family dwelling, something that ShackPrices.com does much more intuitively.
While dropping the proprietary maps surely will save them tons of development costs and frees them up to easily start adding new cities (their website now announces they will be heading into Southern California, Chicago, Boston and Washington DC soon), by jumping on an open API Redfin has lost a significant point of differentiation from its competition.
Arguably they do still have one of the better interfaces of the realty search sites and they continue to add new interesting features (like the ability to instantly chat with a Redfin agent) but the reality is the rest of the industry is quickly catching up.
This means Redfin looks less and less like a pure tech play and will increasingly have to compete on the strength of its business model, which they insist is working.
Ultimately, I believe this is a good thing however, as it’s the business model not their web site that going to sink them or make them a success.
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5 Comment(s)
3 Trackback(s)
- From Matt Goyer’s Real Estate Blog » Blog Archive » Coverage of new Redfin version | Jan 12, 2007
- From New mapping tools on Redfin | Jan 12, 2007
- From Redfin Integrates Microsoft Maps « Screenwerk | Jan 21, 2007
Matt Goyer | Jan 12, 2007 | Reply
Hi Joel, thanks for the feedback!
We’re reserving the red icons for something else in a future release. We also decided it was more important to have icon colors which worked for all users (these colors should be color blind safe) then it was to have icons which fit with our current visual design.
I too like how ShackPrices and HotPads differentiates single and multi-unit and we’ll get to that really soon.
As for losing differentiation from competitors, I disagree. This first release is about getting on the platform. Now that we’re on the platform all we’re focused on is differentiation. Expect to see us releasing much more frequently now. Though with this release we still have our signature parcels available when you zoom in. I don’t believe any other real estate site has that integrated with Virtual Earth or Google Maps (though I could be wrong).
MetroBellevue.com | Jan 12, 2007 | Reply
I like the new site though the navigation and loading of pages take longer than usual. It’s possible that a lot of users are hitting the server because of this story.
Galen | Jan 13, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the favorable comparison, Joel. Matt is right; real estate search really is still in its infancy and there are many ways in which Redfin and ShackPrices are going to improve it.
We’re continuing to innovate - more soon.
Michiel Bonte | Jan 16, 2007 | Reply
matt, and others, congrats on the new site. it definetly looks better.. one thing to improve is that you probably would like to rank the listings on the maps as well as you rank the listings in your traditional webrowser.. it is now a blur on data on the maps where you f.i. would first like to see the houses that are cheapest in your range, and then, while zooming in, go to the more expensive ones (just an example). let’s have the listing match with the results on the map! I talked to glenn last week in ny and explained that we could do that for you. it’s called altitude ranking.. maybe good to have a chat? regards, Michiel / GlobeAssistant
Mike | Feb 19, 2008 | Reply
US based real estate websites are way in front of their European peers in VE implementations. We have just launched the UK’s first such residential solution based on crystal clear bird’s eye views of London. what does the group think?
http://www.london-executive.com/propertybird