Zillow Smart Search is LIVE!
By: David Beitel, CTO | December 18, 2007
For those who have recently checked out Zillow and did any type of search, you probably noticed a few of the changes we’ve made. This is a result of the official launch of Zillow® Smart Search, the dynamic new version of our search technology that helps you search and navigate all of the real estate information you can find on Zillow. We’ve been enhancing our Web site since Zillow debuted almost two years ago and what we released today includes significantly more capabilities.
One of the biggest challenges we face here at Zillow is also one of our greatest attributes—we have so much data and information on homes! At times, this can be overwhelming but our jobs are to continue making your experience on Zillow easier and more meaningful. If you haven’t yet seen it, enter an individual address, try searching for neighborhoods or cities and zoom in and out on the map to see what we have pulled together. I think you’ll agree, Smart Search is pretty different from what’s out there today.
In fact, we think it’s so different that we have patents pending on the technology and infrastructure behind how this all works. The Smart Search system has been built to handle simultaneous and complicated queries fast enough to update search results in real-time and intelligently choose whether to show individual properties or group search results by neighborhood, ZIP code, city, county, or state. Our smart filters guide you through the information and let you slice the results and hone in on the properties that most interest you.
It’s pretty exciting for me and the product and tech teams who have made this a reality and I want to thank everyone for their long hours and dedication. So how hard was it? Well, I did a few calculations and have determined that we likely spent about 25,000 man hours developing what you see today, from design, writing code, testing, usability studies and more. And while nothing gets built at Zillow without a big dose of team work, I have to acknowledge Randy Puttick, who is the real architect behind Smart Search.
And if that wasn’t enough, I also want to point out our revamped neighborhood pages that were also introduced today. The changes we made were in part a result of some very helpful feedback from our visitors. You’ll now find demographic information about the people who live in each ‘hood – age, income levels, education, homeowners vs. renters, etc— as well as some data unique to Zillow such as the Zindex across markets, the number of homes that have been flipped (bought and resold within a year) and the Zestimate distribution, which shows you home value trends across an area.
Keep your eye on our blog for some more detailed posts on these new features from some key product team members. Happy searching!
UPDATE: As with many new releases, we have seen a few bugs pop up here and there that could affect your initial experience using our Smart Search technology. These primarily affect those using a Mac with a Firefox browser and may also intermittently affect Zindexes from popping up within our new boundaries. If you’re on a MAC, try to using the new version of Safari. We’re working diligently to get these fixed, but if you noticed anything that doesn’t seem quite right, please do leave a comment and let us know. We appreciate your patience and hope you’ll check back soon.
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Zillow is Awakening | Personal Insights on Web 2.0, Blogging, and Business on December 18, 2007 1:01 am
[…] Zillow is now Live with Zillow Smart Search (among other things) Last 5 posts in ZillowSeattle Startup Index for December - December 3rd, […]
Kimberly-Florida Realtor/Mortgage Broker on December 18, 2007 11:29 am
I like the ease of Zillow. I use it to take a look at a property before I get order an appraisal. Also, as a realtor I like to see how it compares to doing a CMA on my local MLS. I find that in my area the houses are in a decline in value but Zillow still shows a high value. It is a nice tool but not sure the how valid it is when houses are showing up with 2005 price structures and my appraisers are showing the real 2007 value. Overall, I like to use it and think with a little tweeking it will be a future tool many will access.
Jonathan Bowen on December 18, 2007 12:52 pm
I don’t like the new changes! It was easier to search for either “For Sale” or “Make Me Move” properties yesterday. Can you fix the site so that we can search for both types of properties simultaneously? Thanks, Jon
dick lorimor on December 18, 2007 3:20 pm
I’m using Firefox with a G4, OS X.3.9. Apple no longer supports safari on this OS but Firefox continues to update the browser. I’m experiencing problems too numerous to list with searching. I suspect you are aware of them, or, if not, please access your site with Firefox to see for yourself the mess users like me now have. If you want me to list all of the problems I have found, let me know. Also, if I had some way to send graphics, ie if we could communicate via e-mail, I could send pictures that would be much clearer than an attempt at a text description of the problem. Thanks
NJ Real Estate Wire » Zillow Has New Smart Search Feature For Buyers & Sellers on December 19, 2007 10:41 am
[…] launch of their new Smart Search functionality tells you exactly how many listings the company has in its database, from a top level State search […]
Zillow's New Product Release Misses A Golden Opportunity | 3 Oceans Real Estate, A Boutique Real Estate Brokerage Serving the San Francisco Bay Area on December 20, 2007 9:01 am
[…] been busy lately…first, singing a Zillow-fied Christmas carol…then, more substantively, releasing their new Smart Search technology, which, if I understand correctly, presents different information intelligently, based on where and […]
I’m making Christmas goodies, so here’s all the stuff I don’t feel like fighting about right now | BloodhoundBlog: Real estate marketing and technology blog | Realtors and real estate, mortgages, lending, investments on December 20, 2007 10:17 am
[…] Zillow had a software release this week. How important was it? Important enough to be released eight days before Christmas, when no one is paying attention. What it amounts to, as far as I can discern from the effusive PR-speak in the press release, is smarter routines for determining when to show you listings and when to summarize the data. This is good for you, in the sense that you won’t be stuck waiting for 98,413 listings to emerge from the fog of AJAX, but it’s way better for Zillow, since it won’t be wasting so much processor time and bandwidth coughing up results you can’t possibly use. […]
mary on December 20, 2007 3:59 pm
dear sirs at zillow’ there is frequently posted untrue facts concerning our property. today your site stated our house was sold 9/07that’s not true also you have devalued our property several times we have updated our property continously, but our neighbors property has not been updated since we moved here , how is it you show an increase value on theirs and>value on ours We believe you have our property mixed up
Drew Meyers on December 20, 2007 4:13 pm
Mary-
Please post the address of the home(s) in question so that we can look into this further.
John Gagliolo on December 20, 2007 10:33 pm
Ilisted my home for sale on zillow and it was
great UNTILL you changed your site.I use to find it by zipcode now i can’t find it at all
unless i type in my street address.
I guess unless home buyers know my address
they can’t find my house,which means it won’t
sell mat least not on zillow. i sent zillow
an email about it and they said they could not find the link to fix it,DA what? if they
can’t find it who can???????
This week according to 4realz… | Rain City Guide | A Seattle Real Estate Blog... on December 22, 2007 4:11 am
[…] Zillow Smart Search is LIVE! Zillow announced the next generation of their search tool which features much better integration with neighborhood definitions. There’s some nifty mapping, but otherwise, most of the changes are likely to go unnoticed by the typical user. […]
Jani on December 25, 2007 12:11 am
The new search is great. I especially like the fact that you can see the result size on the options. Clicking on the listing details should open on a new page though, so that the map is not lost.
Minnesota & Wisconsin Lake Property on January 17, 2008 6:23 pm
The is great and helped me alot in my research. I look forward to these kind of changes in future too
Work hard, Play hard. - Zillow® Blog - Real Estate News and Analysis on February 6, 2008 2:48 pm
[…] the recent launch of Zillow Smart Search, the Listing Feeds Program, and a much-improved Zestimate algorithm that put us officially out of […]
Happy 2nd Birthday! | Zillow® Blog on February 8, 2008 2:11 pm
[…] aware of themselves and their surroundings — Check out the recent launch of Zillow Smart Search and our new and improved neighborhood […]
Zillow Undergoes Another Upgrade…But Here’s What I’d Really Like To See! : Domus Test Test Test on July 19, 2008 9:51 am
[…] been busy lately…first, singing a Zillow-fied Christmas carol…then, more substantively, releasing their new Smart Search technology, which, if I understand correctly, presents different information intelligently, based on where and […]
Valerie on July 31, 2008 9:13 pm
My house, 1102 Deerfield Drive, Iowa City, IA 52246 is not located accurately on Zillow.
Jeanette Conrad on August 10, 2008 11:35 am
Everytime I try to get on Zillow.com it says to downlaod Adobe Flashplayer. I click where it says to but nothing happens. Any suggestions about why and what to do to get onto this site.
thanks,
Jeanette
Asia Luxury Property on August 23, 2008 10:20 pm
Great work on this website! Look forward to seeing more property news here!
Cheers,
Larry
Cecilia Kruchko on September 16, 2008 9:34 am
I have the same problem Jeanette was having on Aug 10th, 08 except I downloaded and installed the latest flashplayer and STILL have the problem. Prior to that when I could search I could not figure out how to get to the last sale and property tax data like I used to. Please fix - I’ve told 100s of person’s about this great site & it’s tools. TIA, Cece
(Using Internet Explorer)