The Future of Real Estate is HERE!
If I tell you that Mozilla Labs has released an open source project that allows natural language to rule how you interact with your Firefox browser, you’ll just skim past this article, BUT if I tell you with a click of a button, a map can be embedded into an email, highlighted text can be twittered and highlighted craigslist ads will autopopulate onto a map all while never opening a new window or tab to obtain such things, you will freak out because the FUTURE of the Internet has arrived!
This quick video shows you how Ubiquity works… watch it now, you’ll thank us afterward:
Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo
Real Estate Applications
All this time, we assumed one of the mega companies would find the innovation for how to revolutionize home searching but the race is on- this open source project allows clients to productively search for homes. Right now it only works for Craigslist, but which search portal will get to the finish line first with synchronicity with Ubiquity (meaning you can highlight listings with your mouse, hit Ctrl + space bar and autopopulate a map with all the listings).
How can YOU use it? There are several ways that Ubiquity will begin to play a role in your business:
- Emails are done more quickly, cohesively, accurately and in true rock star style- your clients will never have to leave their emailer, they can print what you send them and it’s already mapped out because you typed in “2718 Costa Azul Cove, 78641” then Ctrl + space bar and embedded the map for that property and the other 12 properties you want your client to drive by tomorrow.
- When telling your clients about an area, instead of sending links to area data, you’ll have it in your branded email already (that took you 2 minutes to make by the way) with embedded reviews of local attractions, restaurants and eventually (when someone hooks up with the open source project to create the option) school data.
- We predict that Ubiquity in the future will have the option for real time real estate data from the local Boards (the same as our current IDX feeds do) so you can simply drop that info into an email, zip it over to your clients and BAM, they’re up to date and they love you.
- You can highlight interesting information and with an easy click, you can tweet it! So, find an awesome stat (“home sales are up 139%”) and twit that bad boy without even opening your Twitter application!
- Search?! The possibilities are limitless.
Everyone gets analytical clients that need tangible data, maps and reviews and Ubiquity is the tool that makes the “I need to know everything” email take seconds instead of hours. It’s almost like a drag and drop system. It’s young and clunky and VERY buggy right now but the concept is so useful that we believe it will be an amazing tool as it grows and with each new version. How do you see YOUR business benefiting from Ubiquity?
Lani is the COO and News Director at The American Genius, has co-authored a book, co-founded BASHH, Austin Digital Jobs, Remote Digital Jobs, and is a seasoned business writer and editorialist with a penchant for the irreverent.
James Bridges
August 27, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Thanks for sharing this neat tool. The ability to integrate data from the web and quickly e-mail it to people is really remarkable. I mean, this way, you are just giving your opinion on an area, you can quickly add 3rd party verification to your e-mails with references to city sites, neighborhood data, etc. Very cool and I think it will help real estate professionals to continue to embrace technology because they have made it easy to implement.
Mark Eckenrode
August 27, 2008 at 1:09 pm
this rocks like no glam band has ever been able to!
Jason Sandquist
August 27, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I will thank you first and watch later! Thanks, watching
Tim McDonald
August 27, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you….what a great start to the continuing improvements of how we can use the information to communicate easier and faster! Major improvement and a great first step.
Matt Stigliano
August 27, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Hey what happened to the math problem?
Lani – Awesome tip off. Just the simple things make it cool. Now imagine a world where people start developing more and more for it. I’m drooling.
Benn Rosales
August 27, 2008 at 3:29 pm
math plugin + wp 2.6 = crash ag you’ll have to get your math fix elsewhere, might I suggest https://www.factmonster.com/math/flashcards.html
🙂
Todd
August 27, 2008 at 3:44 pm
“…you will freak out because the FUTURE of the Internet has arrived!”
Hyperbole aside, yes, I have been using it all day today, testing it as a potential replacement for Yub Nub ( https://yubnub.org ). It’s surprisingly good, almost shockingly so.
What commends have you created? First thing that came to mind for real estate were “z” for a Zillow Zestimate. If you already submitted that, please share in the community section of the Ubiquity web site.
And I am also curious what everyone chose for their keyboard short cut. I picked Ctrl+Q because I am lazy 😛
Lots more testing to do, but yeah Lani is right, it will impact how transaction get done, especially as it releates to filling out forms.
Matt Stigliano
August 27, 2008 at 4:02 pm
50 out of 50 on level 7 (before I got bored)…without a calculator I might add.
Take that Rosales!
Benn Rosales
August 27, 2008 at 4:11 pm
as the #1 trending topic on twitter beating out the dnc08 I would have to say that ubiquity deserves some enthusiasm… call it hyperbole, call it rockstar, call it what you want, but this will change how our consumers interface with real estate from the top down.
Daniel Rothamel, The Real Estate Zebra
August 27, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Ubiquity is off the hook! I have been playing with it since yesterday. Talk about potential. Now I really wish I had a coding background. I need to spend more time finding new commands and trying them. The hardest thing for me is remembering that it is there.
Matt Thomson
August 27, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Dude…not a super techy term, but…dude.
Missy Caulk
September 2, 2008 at 7:16 am
Thanks for this other learning curve. I watched the video, now I’ll have to do it a few more times, but sounds like it will be a good use for Realtors, tours, meetings.