DISQUS

Eric Berlin · 2 years ago

Well, I think the "ghost town effect" is a potential risk for any web community. The key is how you scale it up, and it may well be that Zillow is making a mistake in opening up 6,500 communities at once *or* not seeding enough content/community in an invite-only phase. Time as they say will tell.

It's totally correct to say that just because you have great content, doesn't mean that people will automatically want to sign up for a profile, upload pics, and blog about it.

So, down to more important business: when is my MathewIngramWorld profile going to be ready? I'm on the invite list, right? ;-)

Joe Duck · 2 years ago

I'm also skeptical but this is no Backfence - here Zillow will not pay to have the content developed so if communities do sprout up they'll be gravy to the Zillow bottom line which should only have to pay a modest amount to ramp up and keep this going alongside their core competency, RE listings.

However the *idea* of local voices is excellent, in fact I'm hoping to create a more tourism focused approach with local bloggers rather than contributors to a community in which they have little stake. Hyperlocal *news* will keep failing but hyperlocal *blogging* has only begun to flourish, and IMHO could become the dominant form of human communication. (insert trumpet fanfare here)

Mathew · 2 years ago

Thanks, Eric -- if I ever set up MathewIngramWorld, you will be the first person on the invite list :-)

And Joe, I agree that there is great potential for hyperlocal blogging and other community-type things -- I'm just not sure anyone is going to want to hold that kind of party at a real-estate website.

Fred · 2 years ago

Will Zillow succeed as a hyperlocal news hub? Probably not. I just don't see anyone heading there who's not in the market to buy a house, sell a house, or extract information about their neighbors because they are nosy.

That doesn't mean it will be a failure, however. US laws and Realtor codes of conduct mean that there is a host of information realtors cannot provide buyers. How are the schools? What's the crime rate? How many students get free or reduced-price lunch (unfair and classist, perhaps, but fairly well correlated with school performance)? All of this information is easily obtainable, just not from your agent. If it (and more subjective discussion of "is the neighborhood a nice place to live") is available from Zillow, it gives them something their meatspace competitors don't have.

Rex Hammock · 2 years ago

I too am skeptical. I'm also tired of joining social networks. Frankly, I have lots of ways to hang-out with my off-line friends, my hyperlocal friends, in ways that don't needs to be branded by Zillo. However, if I were buying or selling a house -- or moving into a new community, I might feel differently. Different strokes for different folks. On the real estate front, a new feature of My Maps on Google Maps is pretty cool, by the way.

rod / techfold.com · 2 years ago

Is there really potential for hyperlocal blogging, etc., or do we just wish there was? How much interaction does the average person have with their neighbors as it is? How much interaction do they want with their neighbors?

What channels are most effective at enabling neighborhood-level conversations?

The web is good at bringing far-flung groups together - the long tail, etc. I'd suggest that hyper local groups self-organize and manage organically as much as they need to, simply by virtue of proximity. As demonstrated by the examples noted, attempting to web-ebable these communities is tool without a need. IMHO.

Mathew · 2 years ago

Rod, I think you might be right -- we may instinctively believe that people want a way to interact with their physical neighbours, but it could be that they already have plenty of ways of doing that (if they want to, which many may not) and therefore don't necessarily need an online version.

Before the Internet, physical proximity was pretty well the only way you *could* form a community, but now it's possible to form a virtual community based on just about anything, with people from just about anywhere.

Fred and Rex, thanks for your comments too.

Kyle J. Else · 2 years ago

Great post - with excellent reference links. Im wondering if Zillow or Trulia will start to aggregate news content from local papers or blogs - this would help “seed” content.

luca · 2 years ago

Not only is Zillow building a ghost town a host of originals (homegain) and imitators have emerged that also provide free home value estimates
The Zestimate is not ZO original anymore
You can try
cybyerhomes.com
homegain.com
reply.com
eppraisal.com and many others
Zillow Zucks

Homeowner · 2 years ago

I found www.realestateabc.com to be a LOT (pun intended) more accurate.