Google maps improved for Estate Agents

Estate Agents are watching Google's move into property listings on Google maps like a hawk with a magnifying glass. They know that any major change can have massive implications on the way properties will be viewed online.

The latest development from Australia has got tongues wagging. Google are partnering up with L J hooker, one of Australia's biggest Estate Agencies, to place 16 big Google Map 'Pins' all over Sydney, in an attempt to get people to automatically go to the internet to search for property. It sounds slightly ludicrous but Australia already has a rich culture of 'big things' - including a big pineapple and the first 'big thing', a big banana.

The marketing campaign will also include a few advertisements using the little yellow Street View man you drag onto Google Maps to access and view what areas Street View has available.

To date Google links to over 1,000 Estate Agent websites in Australia including Ray White, First National and Century 21. At this moment in time, there are no mentions of any partnerships with Australia's top two property portals, realestate.com.au and domain.com.au.

So far the team at Google seem unfazed by this. Andrew Foster, product manager for Real Estate search on Google Maps stated that Google is happy to take listings from anyone and that he has seen genuine enthusiasm from the property industry. Andrew Foster then went onto display some new features that Google Maps will have on Google.com.au.

Firstly users will be given the chance to narrow their property search to view the properties that are right for them. Options such as sale/rent, minimum price, maximum price, property type, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, parking and preferred area.

Users can toggle on and off another layer of photos, videos, Wikipedia articles, webcams as well as a live traffic monitor. Once someone has found the property that they are interested in, they are presented with more detailed information with price, address, photos, floorplans, a small Google Map and Google Street view and a link to the Estate Agent's website or a property portal.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques commented on Google Maps in Australia, 'These are exciting developments showing that Google are making a real push to ensure the success of property listings on Google Maps. Unfortunately no comments were made on any developments in the UK.

Air Keyboard - gadget of the week

Estate Agents, do you find that there are too many gadgets are these days? Wouldn't it be nice if you could just combine that pesky mouse, keyboard and remote control into one wireless device?

Well now you can with the Air Keyboard by Cideko. This useful gadget lets anyone control any Windows ('98 onwards) Mac OS X (v10.2 or later) or linux computer by simply just inserting the USB.

The Air Keyboard is small with 142x88x32.9mm and is oddly light. It has a range of 50 meters and works for 50 hours with constant usage with two AA batteries. This isn't that particularly impressive. If an Estate Agent works an 8 hour shift, 6 days a week, they would have to change the batteries every week! This works out as 96 batteries per year, not exactly for the environmentally-minded Estate Agent.

Any Estate Agent that is willing to overlook this will be impressed by its functionality. All they have to do is insert the USB and point the Air Keyboard at the screen and it starts working. They can then use the mouse, keyboard and media simultaneously.

The Air Keyboard is available from around £50.

Troy Stanley comments, 'This would be perfect for those Estate Agents that either moves around their office or for people that love to watch movies on their computer, whilst in bed!'

Web site design for Estate Agents - Colour Theory

Web designers at Resource Techniques explaining some basics on Colour Theory. Colour theory is a diverse and complicated subject, only through studying colour can people know why exactly some colours go together and why some colours look hideous.

Colour Wheel

Firstly let's look at the Colour Wheel. As many Estate Agents will remember from their school days, the colour wheel was original designed by Isaac Newton and has continually been developed and scrutinised.

In colour theory, there are 3 primary colours and 3 possible sets of primary colours. One possibility is Red, Blue, Yellow, another is Red, Blue, Green and the last possible set is Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. Traditionally Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (and Black) are used in printing whereas Red, Blue and Green are used my most electronic devices such as TV and film. Even your computer monitor uses the primary colours of Red, Green and Blue.

If you were to mix one of the three primary colours with another primary colour in the same colour wheel, you would get a secondary colour and then mixing a primary and secondary colour would then create a tertiary colour. Using this system your computer monitor is able to create the whole spectrum of colours.

Colour meanings

Each culture has applied different meanings to various colours. Below are the colours and their meanings or possible emotive response in the western world:

• Red - Passion, love or anger. Red is used to stand out from the crowd which means that it is great at drawing attention. The Colin Bibra website uses red to draw the user's attention to property search, which is exactly what the web designers and Estate Agents want!
• Orange - Happiness, Hope, Vitality. Orange is an unusual colour to use in website design but works perfectly in the Robert Williams website animation.
• Green - Nature and the environment. Green is mean to be peaceful and associated with the world outside. The Penyards website and the Belgarum website uses green fantastically.
• Blue - Calm, trust and water. Blue is great for creating a calm and professional feel to the website. Dart and Partners and West Coast Properties are a great example of this.
• Grey - Grey is a neutral colour that is used to highlight or make other colours stand out. Julian Reid website is a fantastic example of this, the green plants and blue logo and property really catch the eye.
• Purple - Creativity, Royalty and Wealth. Purple is an unusual colour for an Estate Agent website design but the indication of wealth and luxury means that it is perfect for Hirch Way & Ambler website and the Paul Twyneham & Co website.
• Black - Elegance and sophistication. Black is used well in the Rendells website and the Mayfair website.
• White - Purity, Cleanliness, virtue. White is a great colour to outline and make other colours standout such as in the Chinneckshaw website and the Anne James website.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments on colour for Estate Agent website design, 'These are only a few of the basics of colour. Our web design team for Estate Agents has a better eye, knowledge and experience than anyone I've met.

Google buzz for Estate Agents - what are the pros and cons?

There is a lot of buzz around Google Buzz. Will it rival the most popular social networks? Or will it simply fade into the background?

Well Google Buzz hasn't got off to a bad start. According to Google themselves, within 3 days Google Buzz users posted more than 9 million posts. This is a staggering amount and works out around 2,667 messages per minute. Ignoring the fact that Google Buzz automatically feeds from other social networking websites, this is an incredible statistic.

So what are the advantages and disadvantages of using Google Buzz? Firstly, since Buzz is integrated into Gmail, it automatically picks out your contacts and adds them. This is perfect for Estate Agents who already use Gmail as their main account, but not ideal for Agents who do not.

Secondly after inputting you login information, Google Buzz will feed you information from Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, Google Reader, Blogger and Google Chat Status. As you can see, most of these are Google owned so Buzz in theory will act as a central hub for all your Google activity with your Google Profile as the front cover.

A third advantage is that Google also recommends feeds that you might be interested in, even from people who you don't know. Users can then decide if it interests them and also toggle how often they want to see these recommendations. In practice Google will then learn what you like and suggest it more often!

The two disadvantages thrown up over the internet are on its privacy and its lack of simplicity. Reports have stated that The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is concerned over the way Google Buzz automatically finds users. This office is the same one that caused Facebook to make privacy and policy changes so don't be surprised if they make changes to Google Buzz.

Overall Google Buzz seems to be aiming at being a central hub of online activity. Other social networks may be added in the future, so watch this space. In a final thought, Estate Agents and social networking users see Facebook as a pub and Twitter as the town hall, how will they see Google Buzz?

New website design for Pink Estate Agents in York

New website design, pink-estateagents.com has been released today.

Pink Estate Agents in York specialises in the first time buyer marketplace and investor markets for property in and around York and is a specialist department of Hudson Moody. Offering a more individual service for first time buyers and sellers, they sell property up to the value of £150,000.

Troy Stanley, Technical Director at Resource Techniques, remarked that website's 'pink' brand has been integrated into the design to make a strikingly beautiful website.