Teething Problems as Zillow Bears its Fangs
Bad days in Seattle? I hope it didn’t have anything to do with my visit…
First, Zillow spills the beans on its upcoming Neighborhood feature (h/t Baron Briefs). Last week, an stray email was fired off to anyone who had claimed a home in their database that read:
Hello ,
Since you claimed your home at , you might like to know you’re part of the DISC neighborhood on Zillow. This is a brand-new feature — literally, we just rolled it out — and we would like to ask your help in getting it started.
By taking part in your Neighborhood Page on Zillow, you can help make Zillow a useful resource for other people like you.
Today, an apology from the team claiming it was all in error.
We sent you an e-mail last week by mistake. Have you ever hit “send” when you didn’t mean to - or copied the wrong person? That’s pretty much what happened to us, and we apologize.
We’re very sorry that this happened. We respect your privacy and we’re taking every step possible to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.
Then, to top it off, technical problems which force the site down (h/t to FOREM reader Zillow Fan).
Ouch.
All joking aside, Zillow is definitely starting to throw its weight around.
First, broker feeds and now neighborhood conversations? It definitely looks like Zillow are drawing a bead squarely at Trulia. The other neighborhood portals should be looking over their shoulder too.
Coupled with their upcoming mortgage product, it’s pretty clear. Zillow is trying to own this space.
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TitleRep | Jul 10, 2007 | Reply
Yeah, I got that email from Zillow, tried the links, but they weren’t working. Figured something must have been wrong with my computer again so I shut it down for the night. I totally forgot to try the links again the next day and deleted the email. I’m sure whatever it is they’re working on will be good stuff…
Louis Cammarosano | Jul 10, 2007 | Reply
Not so sure that Zillow is succeeding with it business model ( or its email program).
While Trulia seems to have hit upon connecting with the real estate industry (note their big broker listing deals) . They seem to also have had further success connecting their realtors with an increasing number of visitors.
Zillow, however, seems to be mired in providing the latest cool technology that doesn’t seem to be driving any more visitors to its site (witness Inman news yesterday citing Hitwise that Zillow fell below Yahoo real estate in traffic last month)
I’m not sure how Zillow is monetizing its visitors either-selling banner ads and e-z ads to a shrinking visitor base that is still fascincated with checking out Zestimated prices of their own homes, looking up celebrity homes zestimates and offering up their homes in an effort to reach other visitors involved in similar activity to “make them move” doesn’t sound like throwing its weight around to me.
Courting the press, bloggers and consumers seems to be Zillow’s strong suite.
This is a formula proven to make money in the entertainment business-but hasn’t worked yet in real estate…………yet…
Andrew | Jul 10, 2007 | Reply
zillow is trying to do too much
Real Estate Blogger | Jul 13, 2007 | Reply
I’m still not convince Zillow has a solid model. But before they can really even dominate, they’ll have to fill in all of the gaps and improve on accuracy first.
Louis Cammarosano Where Are You? | Nov 11, 2007 | Reply
Where is Louis Cammarosano’s commentary on Zillow now? Zillow has been making huge deals with major brokerages recently and Louis Cammarosano from HomeGain has not piped in with his usual negativity. I guess he is too busy plugging all the holes at HomeGain where traffic and profits are down considerably this year. He finally realized he needed to get off his high horse and take care of business back at home.