[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba_oOjoSJx8[/youtube]

Since launching its F8 platform, the social network Facebook has seen a staggering number of applications developed for it. So many that it verging on becoming a menace – I’m already getting overwhelmed with updates from people who have questions they want answered, or some Pirate games they want me to install.

Despite the noise there is still some very interested work being done with Facebook. Some innovative developers are using the network to reach out to the community at large and get the “wisdom of the crowd” to enhance their databases. An example of this is the Cities I’ve Visited app, which was developed by TripAdvisor – I suspect as a way for them to compile a list of the most popular travel destinations.

One of the early movers in the real estate space is the Neighborhoods application, which was developed and launched by the real estate web site provider Point2 Technologies. It’s a pretty popular application – as of this afternoon it had 21,136 daily active users. Testament to its widespread appeal, it even got a nice nod from the Lost Remote TV Blog recently.

I asked the guys at Point2 for some hard numbers from this project and this is what had for me.

User Base Growth

As of Aug. 31: 1:00 p.m. – 84,370 users…

Daily growth rate is 5,000 to 7,500…Growth rate is doubling every 5 to 10 days at present

29 countries available/active…will continue to add to it

Very impressive numbers.

But what’s even more interesting here, when you dig deeper, is that Neighborhoods is tapping the viral nature of Facebook apps to refine Point2’s database of hyperlocal neighborhoods. It’s getting the Facebook users themselves to tell Point2 where they live. To suggest new neighborhoods where the none may already exist, to correct errors where they exist. It’s rather like conducting a huge Census survey. For free.

Many Real Estate 2.0 sites are out there right now trying to tap the crowd (e.g. my-currency, Zillow) to build out their content but, in my opinion, they are using a flawed Field of Dreams approach (“If you build it, they will come”) to grow the datasets on their sites.

Neighborhoods, on the other hand, is an interesting experiment of the reverse. Don’t make the crowds come to you, go to where the crowds are. Leverage that huge user base and put them to work for you.

It doesn’t stop there either. Point2 has successfully used the traffic as a way to feature listings from its agent pool, and is seeing very good results.

As for traffic back to agent listings, we are tracking around 12+/- percent of total daily users viewing the listings, which is very encouraging.

When F8 first launched, I suggested a few applications that could be developed on the platform (see Facebook Could Make or Break Real Estate 2.0). Three months on, I’m surprised there have been few takers. Perhaps these numbers will shake them out of their slumber.

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Inman News names the finalists for the 2007 Innovator Awards. For more on some of the nominees’ accomplishments, read:

Coldwell Banker

• Coldwell Banker Opens Office in Second Life

Foxtons

• Foxtons Imports Audioshows to USA

Google Street View

• Next Generation Virtual Tours

John L. Scott

• John L. Scott breaks the mold
• The Evolution of Map Based Searches

Point2NLS

• Point2Homes Thinks Inside the Box

Trulia Voices

• Trulia Finds Its Voice

vFlyer

• vFlyers Lets You Put Listings on Your Blog
• Merchandizing Real Estate Photos with vFlyer

WellcomeMat

• WellcomeMat – The Killer App for Real Estate Video

Zillow Q&A

• Zillow Asks What’s For Sale in your Hood?

Also on the list, some great real estate blogs; 3 Oceans Real Estate, BloodhoundBlog, Real Estate Tomato and Transparent Real Estate.

Congrats to all the nominees!

[Full disclosure: I work for Inman News.]

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So Redfin was on 60 Minutes last night – What’s your take?

Mine? Hardly hard-hitting journalism. A PR puff piece if I ever saw one. Redfin just got handed a trophy before the race is even finished.

That said, I’m a big Redfin fan and I think the 60 Minutes story is just what they needed to kick off their next round of investment – here’s hoping they find it, the industry won’t be half as fun without them.

For me, the Redfin brouhaha overshadowed a much more interesting announcement though. The news that Facebook is going to offer free Classifieds. Now you can sell your junk on to your network of buddies. (More from Drew Meyers – who even tests it out).

The big brokers shouldn’t worry about Redfin – what they should be worried about is Facebook.

No, I don’t literally mean the site best known as a way for college kids to organize the next kegger and ‘Friend’ each other – I do mean social networks and their growing popularity and use in many aspects of business however.

The MLS was the original social network. It designed to allow brokers to share listings with each other. What social networking software like Facebook or Ning accomplish is takes that power to disseminate information and hand it directly to the individuals, to the agents themselves.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a fully functional social network designed exclusively for agents to share listings with each other by year’s end.

With infrastructure like that coupled with the ability to create their own networks, an agent’s dependence on having access to the MLS through their broker becomes less and less relevant.

Agents could develop their own networks to be as exclusive or inclusive as they want. They could be hyper local or broadly based. One can imagine many scenarios where these networks could be very effective ways to market properties, especially on the high end; for Beverly Hills luxury homes or New York Brownstoners, homes in the Hamptons or land in Montana, for example.

So who’s in the position to develop this kind of site? Well, certainly Zillow – I have an inkling that their Agent Profiles are just the first step in this direction… they already claim to have 30,000 agents active on their site already, and all they have to do is give them the means to connect with each other. ActiveRain already does this, so does the Point2NLS but both sites are kind of clumsy in their implementation of truly social features. Move.com would be wise to ‘move’ in this direction but would probably struggle with agent buy-in, at least initially.

A stumbling block may be the lack of desire for agents to work together, but I think the spirit of “coopertition” can thrive here. Marketing properties to consumers is just the first step (see Marketing Real Estate on Facebook), marketing listings to each other could be the next.

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