Greek real-estate catches up with Web 2.0

Put together on October 17, 2008 4:29 pm by Dimitris

The true lay of the landFollowing up to my previous post, I think it’d be brilliant if there was a meta-site to collate all the information in the major real-estate sites in Greece and tap on their collective broad user-base and its potential. Let me explain.

To begin with, such a service would include the few basic newspaper classified sites and the major real-estate agents’ ones. As it grows, further sites could also be added although that’s not necessary. The main concept lies in the meta-service scraping on a regular basis the major existing websites and processing that information. Processing means a number of things. Firstly, it should be able to re-display all ads in a homogeneous way regardless of their originating website. That way the visitor would do a single ‘master’ search and get back what there is to be found from all major sources. Secondly, duplicates could be removed from this summarising display - but more on that later. And thirdly and most importantly useful derivative information can be made available using data mining techniques.

But before I go into the data mining, let me expand a bit on the scraping. Now, by definition, classifieds are very concise pieces of text and as such can be analysed into some basic components like neighborhood, price, square meters of land, as well as type or storey if we’re talking about an apartment, extra features (like parking availability, number of rooms, type of heating etc) and even the street (if it’s stated). All this is possible because the vocabulary is particularly limited (perhaps 100-200 different words) or definable (by looking it up in a street directory). It’s important to note that despite the random structure and display in the various sites, the vocabulary remains the same across them and although some customisation will be required to process each site differently the essence of the information will be handled identically. (So if a classified has identical fields and comes from different sites it can be flagged as a duplicate.) Moreover, due to this peculiarity with the vocabulary one can also experiment with natural language searches. A proof of concept that this approach works can probably be seen in Rento which seems able to handle search queries in natural language. (Disclaimer: I do not know how well Rento does it - just that it does it.)

Furthermore, a lot of these individual websites rely to some extent to ads and marketing campaigns to supplement their revenues so depriving them of visitors (who would be able to view the ads in the meta-service instead) would be a major faux-pas. That would eventually lead to the ban the scraping script - if not to legal measures. So, it is important to ensure that once a visitor has found a preferred classified they are transferred back to the original website and that particular piece of text - to view the complete information about it, namely the contact details (or just the form to enter the code they will retrieve via SMS). This visitor transfer could also form the basis for a revenue exchange deal between the meta-service and source-sites. This is similar to the deal between YouTube and copyright holders of videos in their site: instead of flatly taking down videos with ‘their’ content they give them the option to share the revenue.

Back to the data mining features, there is a large amount of value that can be derived from these data. To begin with, simply the number of items for sale or rent is a useful figure - especially if known per location. Another type of result could come about by combining the location (which will vary in detail from neighborhood to exact street - depending on what’s available) and the price. For example, the most expensive and cheapest locations and their average prices can be determined. Conversely, alerts can be issued if any outliers from the average (i.e. possible bargains) have surfaced. Furthermore, accurate price ranges can also be calculated per square meter for each location. In addition to this, the meta-service can accumulate data over time (it should be able to remember when an ad has first appeared) and it can compare how different (or neighboring) location prices and other features evolve.

This meta-service can this way provide real-time statistics and become an as accurate as possible platform for the whole industry in a relatively easy way. This processed information can form the basis of a premium package that can be used to monetise the website. Such packages could be offered in conjunction with a free functionality - that would e.g. have limited features or would not go as back in time as the premium. An ad campaign can also be included in the website as well as an API offering access to the information - possibly for a charge if used for commercial purposes.

Now, scope-wise, an online real-estate business may be one of the few examples where going local instead of global is probably a better idea. Interest for a piece of land or site either either with the aim of living in it or housing a business usually comes from within the country - instead of from an individual or a company who has little knowledge of the culture and the geography. For example, large US sites like trulia and zillow, which admittedly, have considerable markets on their laps already, operate by focusing on the internal market. So, one could say the scope of such a meta-service should be mainly Greece.

However, there are some exceptions to the rule obviously and the first that comes to mind is tourism - a field where Greece is strong. The Greek islands but also the mainland have long been an attraction for foreigners (esp. Western Europeans) and a small fraction of them have settled in Greece. Indeed, lately a growing trend has been to transform rural Greece according to the model to other Mediterranean countries (e.g. Spain and Italy). This means turning large areas full of hotel complexes and villas, that are either put up for rent for the summer or the whole year or bought by foreigners (for instance, Russians, Germans, French etc). In the longterm therefore a niche global - or at least European - market may also develop that this meta-service could tap on.

What do you think overall - is this a good idea for a start-up?

(photo by oldyankee)

tags: idea


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Talking Greek online real-estate

Put together on October 15, 2008 8:28 pm by Dimitris

Not so real estateAs I’ve mentioned in a previous post I’ve been looking for a house and since it’s been a couple of weeks since that post and I’m still looking for one, you can tell it’s been a long and tiresome search. The search for a (good) house in the past couple of weeks was done partly online and that has provided me with some initial insight on that business sector.

Although real-estate and construction are major industries here, their online presence of those businesses is still strikingly web 1.0 for the better part. There are noteworthy efforts - e.g. Rento and GreekEstate - but they haven’t really took off yet content-wise.

The rest of the real estate sites are split into two categories. The first category - which has the most members - consists of simple websites usually put together by real-estate agents as a portfolio of their clients. Such sites are also created by independent wanna-be power players in the field - who don’t understand the amount of effort and man-hours they require: the common feature of this category is that they have ‘out-of-date’ written all over them. Their online business model is basically free: it costs nothing to look for an ad and if the house seems interesting you arrange for an appointment with the real estate agent. You only then learn of the exact location of the property and if the deal takes place the agent takes a fee.

The second category are the big players: another powerful industry in Greece, the newspapers,  have created an online presence for their classified section. The model here is somewhat simpler: you can view the classifieds - apart from the telephone numbers. You need to either buy the newspaper or send an SMS to have a code sent back to you - in order to unlock the contact details for a day or two.

It’s odd that online real-estate has been left behind in Greece as real-estate is an industry very fitting to the Web 2.0 approach. Lots of people are constantly on the lookout either for a purchase or a rent opportunity while at the same time owning property and renting it in Greece is a source of income for a considerable number of households. Construction and selling land or housing is another common line of work - as well as that of the real-estate agent. A booming industry overall with many small players - an ideal example of the so-called long tail. (The other end of the spectrum - large pieces of land or large buildings - follows a different path to monetisation.)

If you think this post seems ‘inadequate’ after such a long wait, you’re right. It’s a warm up for the follow-up post where I’ll present an idea about how Greek online real-estate can be taken to the next level.

(image by sloth_rider)

tags: analysis


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The making of a name

Put together on September 17, 2008 12:28 pm by Dimitris

This way in for a good nameNow that WebSource.it has launched (with unexpected success) it’s perhaps an appropriate time to post about a project that was created ‘on the side’ of that website.

It was just when we had started thinking about WebSource.it and well before any line of code had been written that we realised that a key factor that would make the difference between success and failure would be its name. Since the functionality is extremely simple (and basically already available in many other places) it was necessary to get right two things. Firstly, we had to design and fine tune the whole experience so that WebSource.it goes unnoticed and is fast in order to encourage people to just use it: switch tab, get the information and return right back to work. I think we were successful in that - although there’s room for improvement.

Secondly, picking a name that was easy to remember, descriptive, useful and appealing would mean that users actually come back and even tell their friends about it. Anything too obscure or complicated would throw them off, as would anything that was too unusual or too experimental. In other words, the concept behind the name had to be well thought-out in order to avoid any pitfalls that would limit its virality and popularity.

So, while we were having a go at different names, I thought that all this effort in coming up with a name that suits the project ‘brand’ we had in mind should not go to waste. That’s how I decided to write my version of a short guide on how to come up with a name - WebSource.it is used as the case study.

You might say that a guide about names is next to useless as there can be no recipes for things like that. Either you sit down, think and come up with a good one or not. This is in part true, I guess, but having a recipe of sorts can at least help to jumpstart the process when you start working on the brand. In fact, a number of people have written on that - for instance, check out Guy Kawasaki’s guide on the issue.

And of course always bear in mind that even after such a process has finished and you’ve come up with something that looks perfect on all accounts, something better can still appear. That happenned in our case, when after registering a domain we eventually concluded that WebSource.it was better - and we were more than willing to scrap (the admittedly little work already done) for the new domain.

So, head over to the Downloads section, get the guide (with a bonus section ‘the making of WebSource.it’) and let us know if it comes handy. Depending on the feedback I get from people, I will update it accordingly.

Image by rkimpeljr

tags: project


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New Service: WebSource.it

Put together on September 9, 2008 7:16 pm by Dimitris

So summer came and went and now we’re back home. Even though I’ve been back already for more than a week, I found lots of stuff waiting for my attention that have kept me from blogging: looking for a new house, having to work my way through the National Land Plan online forms (both due in a month or so) and generally getting my post-military-service life in order has more or less kept me quite busy.

House hunting and bureaucracy aside, all is not quiet on the creativity front however. Along with George and Thimios, I am proud to present a little web service we put together: WebSource.it!

Most people actually prefer good than lucky

The idea is pretty simple: with WebSource.it you can compare two or more (up to 5) words or phrases in terms of the results Google returns.

WebSource.it can be used as a quick way to find what’s the correct spelling of a word or the correct grammar for a phrase. I think most of us have done that already: not being sure if it’s ‘ellaborate’ or ‘elaborate’ we put both in Google and let it decide for us. Now WebSource.it makes it just a bit easier. Plug in the terms and outsource the answer to the web.

Or, alternatively, you can use WebSource.it to find out what’s more popular. For example, you can run through it your name and the names of your competitors - or the names of some of the stock you want to buy. The highest result indicates more buzz about that term. And if you want to stretch it you can even add an adjective in the question. For instance, to find out if the iPhone is considered expensive compare “iPhone expensive” with “iPhone cheap”.

I bet there are also other uses to be discovered for WebSource.it - that’s the beauty of making something simple. Feel free to use it and maybe send us some feedback - or just subscribe to our blog for sparse updates of developments in the service.

tags: project


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Summer hiatus

Put together on August 8, 2008 8:00 pm by Dimitris

The next few weeks will mean (even more) sparse updates by me to this blog due to holidays I will be taking in the Greek islands. This happy occurrence (the holidays, not the blogging break) is amplified by the fact that at last the 9-month period of my military service has ended. Can’t complain, it wasn’t that bad and it could have been much worse. Hopefully, by the fall time things will have returned to a more regular routine here.

So starting from the first week of August and until the end of the month when I get back the internet remains safe for a bit more. In the meantime you may catch me Twittering or maybe even Powncing (RSS).

tags: Uncategorized


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Flirting with Filtrbox: a fling?

Put together on July 28, 2008 10:00 am by Dimitris

Tom Lindstrom’s comment at my previous post on information overload led me to a relevant post of his which in turn had a comment by Flirtbox’s founder, Ari Newman. Not having heard of Flirtbox at all, I decided to sign up and take it for a spin.

Flirtbox resembles what I have suggested our mobiles should do at an earlier post of mine. It is a web service that works as a filter between a section of the social media (in this case, the blogosphere, the twittersphere and the… friendfeedsphere) and you. In particular, you ask it to monitor a number of keywords and it will return articles from a large set of feeds and microblogging content that match these keywords. The articles returned have a FiltrRank (corresponding to how relevant they are) which can be raised or lowered to decrease or increase the amount of information you receive and the service can be trained to better understand what you consider relevant. The service is based on Google Alerts to detect articles with matching keywords - not having used Google Alerts before this initially put me off somehow. When I set up some Alerts though and imported them in Flirtbox seemed to work like a charm and to deliver the goods.

s2.jpg

However, there quite a few points that spoil the effort. For one thing, the whole thing seems written entirely in Flash (or is a similar ‘heavy’ Rich Internet Application) - I’m sure they had pretty good reasons for doing this but they escape me. For another, once relevant articles have been detected I could not immediately find a way to read them on site - I had to visit the target website in another tab. And if you would like to create more than 5 filters you need to upgrade to paid subscription mode - which seems a rather low limit. Another thing that bothers the info junky in me is that I can’t find out which content sources are being monitored and how the content eventually presented at me is selected.  My point is that there is a lack of transparency in how the service works - but maybe that’s just me.

Overall, Flirtbox is a fine effort on top of a great concept but despite the pleasing design it eventually comes out somewhat clunky and too abstract - and consequently not straightforward to grasp. It’s a service worth giving a go though and paying attention to how they try to improve.

tags: product


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What lies past information overload?

Put together on July 25, 2008 12:59 pm by Dimitris

OverloadYesterday, I commented on this opinion post by Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani. There, she tries to tear apart the myth that we are information overloaded, overmultitasking and under constant distraction that diminishes our productivity and so on. To counter these assessments she quotes three thinkers and their arguments. The last one - and perhaps the most improbable - urged me to put in words what has been in my mind for a long time now. It was Bill Gates.

(The second is Clay Shirky - already overquoted in this blog and the first is Anne Zelenka - read Trapani’s post about her views).

So, Gates had said back in 2005 in genuine counterintuitive and perhaps somewhat annoying manner that most people really suffer from information underload:

…the information exists, but it is not in one place and cannot be easily viewed in a meaningful way using today’s software.

Although Gates was actually referring to knowledge workers not being able to collect and combine disparate but essential data from various sources, the same applies to almost everyone out there - even if knowledge and information is not part of their job - or even their entertainment.

There is information out there that ranges from critical to simply entertaining for us (in other words, relevant to us) that we simply are not aware of its existence. Our everyday experiences regularly remain misinformed and incomplete whenever we fail to learn about recent events in our neighborhood or developments in our business field or simply the latest joke. And not because that we didn’t search or didn’t bother - but because we didn’t think there was anything to be found; that is the definition of information underload.

We need to dive deep togetherThe answer is that we need to look harder and at more places. Consult others more, interact more. Expose ourselves to more information. This quickly becomes impossible to handle (e.g. reading more than a few hundred feeds) - but we should keep adding more and find smarter ways to ‘process’ them; instead of declaring information overload bankruptcy. We should start from everything and remove irrelevant information - not from nothing and add isolated bits up to the point we can handle.

All those that have experienced and are struggling (either at a personal or at a professional level) with the so-called information overload these days should I think move in that direction. Firstly, to pave the way for the larger crowds that will soon be discovering the (over)abundance of information and secondly to embrace and eventually handle the problem.

tags: analysis


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Cheap. Easy. Global. And Individual.

Put together on July 17, 2008 6:26 pm by Dimitris

Readers of this blog will probably have noticed that Calacanis decided to stop blogging in what, some might say, was a fit of drama. Yes, this is no big news in itself. It did however spur a bit of discussion that blogging may be dead (yes, again) and other nonsense - as if blogging could even start feeling a bit under the weather on a (so-called) A-lister’s whim.

As people keep repeating in such cases, the discussion that stems from the original post is by far better than what a single person could hope to achieve. Such an example is this semi-inspirational post by Hugh McLeod (aka gaping void). I say semi-inspirational because it’s half-based on a concept and a quote from a fully inspirational person, Clay Shirky.

The idea is that blogging (and all the technologies that followed it online) have resulted in media that are cheap, easy and global. This is a pretty straightforward notion: anyone, anywhere can create and contribute easily and next to cost-free. And they will do it. And they already are doing it.

To take the idea a bit further, the question that arises is how to tap this creativity. A number of approaches have been attempted that usually tap in the so-called wisdom of the crowds: basically, try to determine how a group of people collectively feels about a certain topic.

But to me it’s all about managing to tap the potential of the whole group - albeit individually. I don’t know how this can be achieved - but I’m confident that this is where most of the value of the social media lies. Perhaps its already here in the shape of Wikipedia’s storm of user generated entries. Maybe it’s what FriendFeed is trying to do (but is not there yet) - enabling clear and focused conversations: bringing up the opinion of each individual in the appropriate context. Or it could be something else entirely. Like, e.g. managing to base on someone’s existing reading habits the accurate picking of entire arguments from the (recently under attack) long tail that fit each individual reader’s taste and needs.

tags: analysis


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Crosspost: OpenCoffee Athens is one year old!

Put together on July 6, 2008 2:02 pm by Dimitris

The following is a cross-post from OpenCoffee.gr the local startup community blog I occasionally contribute to.

Last Tuesday’s event was a very special evening for all of us that are involved in one way or another in the Greek startup and entrepreneurship ’scene’ (for lack of a better word). It marked a whole year of OpenCoffee meetings - a year filled with the enthusiasm, creativity and productivity of the Greek geek crowd. A crowd which by now through these get-togethers should have a clear picture of itself, its variety and its capabilities. The night was also significant because it was another step to put Greece on the map as far as startups are concerned: TechCrunch UK’s Mike Butcher was there to get an idea of what some of the Greeks like to do with their free (or work) time.

the crowd before the presentations

As usual the event was held in the first Tuesday of the month and it was set up to take place in Bocca, a classy venue at the southern coast of Athens. It was the meeting’s first time there - a summery, fresh and open space; a very appropriate place to present innovative and blue-sky ideas. Relaxing couches and small tables dotted the wooden floor area encouraging mingling and the ‘networking’ effect such meetings thrive on.

By about 9 the crowd had already gathered and a considerable buzz was picking up from all over as people were moving from conversation to conversation, catching up, exchanging ideas and business cards. Men and women of all ages had created a very relaxed and casual atmosphere which at the same time was welcoming and intriguing. Perhaps that’s what you get when creative and smart people come together to talk about their passions.

Due to some technical difficulties the talks started at about 10.30 which probably was annoying for most but at least meant more time to talk to people. The five minute presentations were on a wide range of subjects and a video of each will be soon uploaded here. Most of them were top-notch in terms of content (although some could do with improvements presentation- and preparation-wise:P) confirming what most of us already know: that in principle our ‘local’ projects have nothing to be jealous of compared to foreign attempts.

the crowd after the presentations


Following the presentations the mingling continued and even past midnight OpenCoffee people were still talking - although gradually being overwhelmed by Bocca regulars, drinking and dancing. Photos from the whole event from the beginning of the evening till its decadent end can probably keep you busy here - until the next meeting on September 2nd.

tags: report


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How will LinkedIn show us the $1B shine?

Put together on June 26, 2008 12:27 pm by Dimitris

LinkedIn was recently announced to have secured a 4th round of funding which translates to a value of 1 billion USD. And the question of course is was that too much? The various analysts are a bit hesitant to show surprise indicating a yes. But for the stuff that LinkedIn does now it seems to me it’s a tad too much.

When I first started using LinkedIn it seemed like it was meant to save me from the void that Facebook was trying to fill with noise. Until I realised that LinkedIn is also a bit of a void itself.

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At face value LinkedIn seems to be just a very serious version of Facebook for the business oriented 30 somethings and above. Once you submit your data in it you’ve created a fancy, semi-dynamic resume and you can then proceed to the all too familiar process of friending people. And then… nothing. Just add more friends perhaps.

Unless you’re looking for a job there really doesn’t seem to be anything in LinkedIn for you. If you’re trying to move up the ladder, market yourself in a slightly different field or widen your customer base, LinkedIn and its multimillion strong database of people and (as of recently) companies is a useful tool. But if you aren’t on the job market - and admittedly even the most ambitious of us are on it relatively sparsely - perhaps the only feature worth revisiting LinkedIn for is its Q&A section.

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This seems like a bad business model: in general sites like LinkedIn would want people interacting with their website as much as possible. But eventually I realised that LinkedIn is really not as obvious as Facebook. You have to do two things to get the most of it. Firstly, you need to subscribe to one of its premium packages - to allow yourself access to a broader array of services LinkedIn offers. And secondly you need to dig really deep in the details your entire social and business circle has submitted.

The former means, for example, that you will be able to ask questions to a broader range of experts - which would allow you to essentially perform mini-polls and do market research. The latter is probably less relevant for most users. For instance, salespeople needing to better relate to prospective customers and collaborators can make better use of the platform. Human resources people can also find a wealth of information in the LinkedIn databases.

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But what if you’re not in the people business and you actually want to do things with all those networks of professionals? Surely loads of projects, productivity and problem solving is happening because of but outside LinkedIn. However, I think even more opportunities are left unexploited because of the focus of the service on networking alone.

I’m not talking about those that already have 16-hour jobs (which perhaps they have landed on due to their LinkedIn contacts) or those that already regularly tap on their connections. I’m talking about all those who’ve created a profile, visited it a couple of times and left the service there. Wouldn’t it be better if all those users were given a more obvious chance to contribute to projects? It would be very interesting to know the current activity LinkedIn profiles see. I bet there is a considerable fraction that is mostly passive.

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So, I think LinkedIn should follow a two-fold approach in investing the money - although obviously to have secured it, they must have presented a damn good plan of what they will do with it.

Firstly, having proven that their networking features work, they should focus on offering actual productivity tools - or integration to similar services. The good thing with LinkedIn is that it already has its user base divided according to field. So, it should be comparatively easy to study what extension to their platform each field of professionals wants - and implement it. General use utilities such as wikis, mind-mapping software even project management packages could be offered to professionals regardless of field.

Now, obviously I’m not saying that LinkedIn spends effort and money in creating for example a mindmapping plugin to their website necessarily. But seamless integration with an existing service - yes, even outside LinkedIn walls - would benefit both the external service and LinkedIn. After all, LinkedIn is an OpenSocial proponent and they have already done something like this with Salesforce and BusinessWeek. Obviously, the example service in question would also gain by exposing itself to LinkedIn’s user base. So these are win-win deals with existing services. Alternatively, if such services can’t be persuaded, they can be acquired.

Secondly, LinkedIn has to actually make use of their app-building platform - the Intelligent Application Platform. It was announced quite a few months back and remained relatively unheard of since then. It is considerably closed - LinkedIn has to approve work made on it - but at the same time a huge opportunity for the LinkedIn community (and that includes the companies that are using it) to create apps and widgets the whole user base will benefit from. Essentially, this will put many a helping hand towards my earlier point: make LinkedIn do a lot more things than just networking.

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Ultimately, such a strategy by LinkedIn may allow their entire user base - us - to tap on its ‘cognitive surplus‘ Clay Shirky was referring to in his recent talk. By that I mean, it might give us - or at least some of us - a platform through which we will evolve from passive video watchers, gift passers, vampire vs werewolf players and so on to something more creative and ambitious.

tags: analysis


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