Virtual Tours and Video Go Another Round
A couple of years ago I postulated that video would eventually kill the virtual tour (see Inman Connect Highlights Real Estate 2.0) – and, for the most part, that seems to have happened. The seemingly ubiquitous (at the time) 360 spin-and-puke photo tour has largely been replaced these days by Ken Burns-like slide shows and full motion video walkthroughs.
But, I could have spoken too soon.
Yellowbird is a Dutch company (who, incidentally, win the most awesome URL award with www.yellowbirdsdonthavewingsbuttheyflytomakeyouexperiencea3dreality.com – perhaps kicking off a new trend?) which has just pioneered the 360 spin-and-puke, inside full motion video.
Yeah, it’s as crazy as it sounds…
Check it out.
Most definitely this has implications for real estate marketing. Two years from now, could this be the norm in online tours? Will we be seeing 3D scrollable Street View videos from Google on their Place Pages (see Google makes yet another big move into real estate territory) any time soon? It’s something the Swiss already seem to be working on (see The Swiss Give Us A Peek At 360-Degree VideoStreetView Maps)
In all seriousness however, I kind of like this. It puts me in control of the watching experience in my browser. Something I find natural with the lean-forward nature of the web. And I like the idea of being able to virtual “drive” down a street and see a home from my browser.
In the meantime however, while I’m waiting for all this to transpire, I think I have some mighty big URLs that I need to go and register.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Make sure to follow Inman News on Twitter too!
5 Comment(s)
3 Trackback(s)
- From Virtual Tours and Video Go Another Round | Future of Real Estate … | Holy lands tours - holyland | Dec 17, 2009
- From Virtual Tours and Video Go Another Round | Baton Rouge Real Estate | Jan 7, 2010
- From Top 10 real estate posts of the day for 12/18/2009 | Mar 14, 2010
Kesa | Dec 18, 2009 | Reply
That’s pretty neat; I’m curious to see if it takes off in the real estate industry.
Would’ve made house hunting a lot more fun when I was searching.
- Kesa
Gainesville Real Estate | Dec 18, 2009 | Reply
That video made me sick. I don’t think that’s going to be a popular medium for viewing real estate any time soon. I hope I’m right. haha.
Rainer | Dec 18, 2009 | Reply
While this would be great on something like street view, it’s not really practical in a house, unless you’re following someone narrating a tour (an agent walking through and point out features). A house generally is a static experience…no moving parts. Plus, this doesn’t let the user control the timing. In residential RE, you would have to wait for the video to go to the next room, or would probably spin around it too fast to catch features thinking you only have 5-10 seconds before it does go to the next room.
Cool for sports, but not for residential RE; there isn’t enough control the user may want. But, I would love to see someone spend the money to try it out!
Fred Light | Dec 19, 2009 | Reply
File this under “Just because you CAN do it doesn’t mean you should.”
I’ll order a few extra barf bags, thank you very much.
FlatFee495 | Dec 25, 2009 | Reply
Not sure if something like this will work
don’t like it but…
FlatFee495.com