I know of at least one Australian Mapping site set to go live at the end of this month, and I was lucky enough to get a few hours of a sneak preview this past week.
The site still has some glitches, especially in the Firefox browser but the great features of this type of real estate portal cannot be ignored. Since posting some information a few weeks ago about mapping sites I have had quite a few emails.
Some sites claim to be the first and of the ones I trialled they were terrible examples of mapping sites.
This new one has definitely increased my hope that many (if not all) portals will provide this kind of feature in the future.
Many portals will ignore this as most of the screen needs to be used for the mapping system, which makes it hard to bombard users with advertising. However advertising can be accomplished in a complimentary manner, which is better for site users and just as good for advertisers.
I will be including mapping systems in my portals, but only as an option, which in the current climate seems like the best way to go…….
There are some downsides to the mapping systems, they are a little slow and they do need to think of the user a little more. I don’t want to go through a whole range of searches to find that the site has no listings in this area. Aside from these small but significant problems, I can see these types of sites springing up everywhere in the future.
If you would like to sign up to the site I suggest you go to realmap.com.au and register your interest.
I have used the site quite a bit and it does need quite a deal of work before it can be presented to the public, but it is definitely the best by far from what I have seen to date.
1 Comment
Paul
Sounds fun, I’ve had a play around with the google mapping system and mashed up a test portal did quite well with a few hours work. A few years down the track I can see great things for systems like these especially with real estate back office tools.