Web Applications

Network World's Web Applications Newsletter, 11/14/07

TourFactory: Better realtor presentation

By Mark Gibbs

In the last newsletter I discussed some aspects of the realty market as it appears online and how that works with some properties highlighted in a Trulia newsletter. Today, I have a much more compelling realty selling presentation that I stumbled across via a listing on Trulia.

The property in Austin ($1,495,000) has a much more sophisticated presentation and includes a very interesting virtual tour via a service called TourFactory.

TourFactory builds and hosts these virtual tours and can arrange professional photography for the project. TourFactory provides a number of tour types that span delivery via the Web (they call it the “Ultimate Tour”), and mobile phones as well as flyers and CDs (note to TourFactory: It is “CDs” not “CD’s” – I seem to see this odd mistake a lot these days).

The “Ultimate Tour” includes panoramic photos which can be rotated simply by mouse rollover (pretty easy for naive users compared to the more common click and drag navigation); layout themes; personalized page headers for information; what TourFactory calls with no justification I can understand, its “World-Famous Tabs” (guys, if I haven’t heard of your tabs they ain’t world famous), which provide navigation between views; audio for voiceovers or (shudder) mood music; tools for contacting the agent, mapping the property location, and e-mailing the presentation to a friend; standard and widescreen viewing modes; a slideshow version, a hit counter only the agent can view, space to list property details, and the ability for the listing agent to update and add to the presentation using their Web browser.

The simplest presentation TourFactory provides is a slideshow mode. For example, here’s a property in my town, Ventura, which shows how you wouldn’t want to use TourFactory (to automatically start irrelevant music that I may not like is simply aggravating).

The first TourFactory presentation I mentioned above is much more effective than the Ventura example, but then again it costs more and more effort was put into it.

While I think the TourFactory service is moving in the right direction, I think it has some functional and conceptual problems. First, the “World-Famous Tabs” are, to be brutally honest, ugly. It looks like the creation of a second rate games designer. That said, it works fairly well except that every click on a world-famous tab requires that the whole Web page refreshes (AJAX guys, AJAX!). And should you select a panoramic view you’ll see below the image “Viewing Options,” which are labeled “HTML (Flat)”; “Flash (Flat)”; “Java (Flat)”; and “Java (Bubble).” I have no idea what these options mean, and if I don't then I’m betting that it could well make Aunt Myrtle from Topeka’s head explode.

I could rag on the aesthetics and some of the technology of TourFactory more, but I won’t. I think that TourFactory is actually doing a lot right and their pricing (starts at $19.95 per month for two active virtual tours, up to $49.95 per month for unlimited active tours) is not at all bad.

On the other hand, I think that they could do a lot better sic’ing a serious Web designer onto updating their look and feel and get some really serious market traction in the process.

Even so, this is what the realtor market will look a lot more like in the next few years – the Web becoming even more important as a marketing vehicle, and being used to deliver high quality, in-depth information that really sells.

Editor's note: Starting the week of Nov. 19, you will notice a number of enhancements to Network World newsletters that will provide you with more resources and more news links relevant to the newsletter's subject. Beginning 'Monday, Nov. 19, the Web Applications Newsletter, written by Mark Gibbs, will be merged with the Network Applications News Alert and will be named the Web Applications Alert. You'll get Mark's Web apps pick of the day, which you will be able to read in full at NetworkWorld.com, plus links to the day's network applications news and other relevant resources. This Alert will be mailed on Mondays and Wednesdays. We hope you will enjoy the enhancements and we thank you for reading Network World newsletters.

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, and columnist and now blogger: Check out Gibbsblog.

Gibbs not only pens (well, keyboards) this newsletter he also writes the weekly Backspin and Gearhead columns in Network World. We’ll spare you the rest of the bio but if you want to know more, go here

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