Realtor.com President discusses tech outlook with AG

At the National Association of Realtors convention currently underway in New Orleans, Move, Inc. CRO and President of Realtor.com, Errol Samuelson met with AgentGenius to show us more about their new Android app (which you heard about first here on AG) and discuss the future of technology.

In the bustling convention hall, only minutes after the Expo opened, Samuelson held a Samsung cell phone running on an Android OS and stood in the standard “typing on a cell phone position,” in a crowded circle of Realtor.com staff and AG staff.

“Take a look at this,” Errol started as he unlocked his cell phone and showed us features of the Android app we hadn’t seen in the pre-launch preview version we had reviewed. On his landing page was a sizable widget that shows listings on a slider that are based on the cell phone’s GPS. We were shown some of the neat easter eggs and even got to show some of the PR staff the easter eggs we’d found on our own (for example, on our EVOs, if you highlight an address while using any application, it offers the Realtor.com app as a mapping option alongside navigation and Google Maps).

Benn and Errol volleyed conversation back and forth, starting with their days in tech in the early 1990s (despite both of them looking way too young to have the extensive backgrounds in tech that they do) and “nerd” words like IRC and TCP/IP came up. The conversation wandered to the way forward and what Move, Inc. had in store.

Benn asked about touch screen technologies as they apply to crossover products between smartphones, tablets, netbooks and personal computers. Errol projected optimism toward Move, Inc. technologies in 2011 and 2012, noting that investments must be made on stable platforms that won’t disappear (like Microsoft Silverlight which other companies have used and led to abandoned projects) and that their core focus at present surrounds mobile technologies.

Based on criticism of the past that Realtor.com is slow to move forward with technologies, Benn asked how Realtor.com (who is an advertiser with AG) wanted to position itself as bleeding edge. Errol noted that they want to position themselves with consumer demand and that they plan on going with what the consumer has come to expect from them and use technologies that actually make sense.

As the discussion came to an end and we had all bantered enthusiastically about cell phone market share and platform evolution, Benn said he had a final tough question for Errol who shifted from his right foot to his left in anticipation of the question… “Errol, you said you’re searching for a home, you’re using a Realtor, right?” Errol was caught off guard and chuckled, resituated back to his right foot, leaned in to Benn and said, “of course!” No matter the way forward with technologies, tools or futuristic applications, it’s good to hear that Realtors are still front and center in the real estate transaction.

In case you don’t have an Android phone and would like a tour of the features, it is demonstrated in the video below. As mentioned previously, Android is the only cell phone operating system that is expanding in market share while all others decline or remain stagnant. Move, Inc. has focused energy on the OS as they forge ahead with their focus on mobile technologies to serve Realtors and consumers.