Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head [grown slightly bald]
brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker.
Trulia.com is going into the Realtors-talking-to-each-other business…
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
Kevin Tomlinson says:
I wouldn’t worry if I was Active Rain because I’m sure you’ll probably find the Trulia network just as “stoopid!”
Will you generally embrace this Trulia network just to continue your railing on Active Rain?
No? Yes?
January 17, 2008 — 5:43 pm
Greg Swann says:
> I wouldn’t worry if I was Active Rain because I’m sure you’ll probably find the Trulia network just as “stoopid!”
Very likely.
> Will you generally embrace this Trulia network just to continue your railing on Active Rain?
I don’t particularly like either site, though for different reasons. Lately I find myself using Zillow for practical purposes, but not the practical purposes Zillow markets itself to fulfill.
I have nothing for or against Active Rain, Kevin. I don’t care for it or use it. I don’t eat Thai food. I don’t go Salsa dancing. Different people like different things. I’m glad that you and so many other people like Active Rain to the point of fandom. But that doesn’t mean Active Rain has a viable business. After today, it has even less of a business.
January 17, 2008 — 5:53 pm
Sparky says:
Personally, I don’t think ActiveRain really needs a break. And there’s pleny of room for other players in the networking realm, without adversely affecting ‘business.’
January 17, 2008 — 7:07 pm
Kevin Tomlinson says:
I just wanted to see what you thought……interesting.
January 17, 2008 — 7:28 pm
Todd Carpenter says:
I don’t think it’s going to work. Active Rain works off the premise that participation is going to help them find consumers. Either through Localism or Google love. I’m not sure it does much of either, but that’s the premise that gets many users hooked. They continue because of the friendships they build.
To whatever extent Trulia does either of these, adding Agent 2 Agent isn’t going to bolster the agents standing with consumers, or with the agents they were already talking to on Active Rain, or on the existing Voices site.
If I were Trulia, the way I would connect with agents would be to offer those same white-label publishing platforms, but to do it for agents. Then let them add their feeds into both a filtered (their feeds, company feeds) and public pool.
January 17, 2008 — 8:04 pm
Derek says:
Potential clients: Hi Mr. Agent, I saw your profile on active rain and was wondering…
Busy Real Estate Agent: *click*
Office Assistant: Who was that?
Busy RE Agent: Some telemarketer from some kind of Indian Trading Company. (Get it, Active Rain: Rain Dances, etc).
Disclaimer: In case there is any NDNs reading this message… chweh-n take the joke in stride. I too have more than enough NDN blood running through my system.
January 18, 2008 — 12:26 pm
Ken Montville says:
Greg,
No Salsa dancing? No Thai food? I’m aghast! 🙂
The thing about AR or Trulia is that they provide a forum for real estate professionals (or industry insiders, if you will) that might not necessarily communicate with one another to do so. Sometimes that creates a good result, sometimes not, sometimes it’s more of a neutral experience.
I was thinking the other day that the 66,557 members of AR is really only about 4.7% of the entire NAR database (assuming a 1.4 million membership) and however much less than that of ALL the licensees in the country (since not all licensees are Realtors) PLUS AR’s database includes a lot of non-Realtors such as lenders, appraisers, home stagers, etc.
So either one is just a place for the technologically inclined (or wannabees, as Greg would term people like me) to chew the fat and share.
It seems like there is plenty of room for growth on both platforms.
January 20, 2008 — 8:59 am
Greg Swann says:
> It seems like there is plenty of room for growth on both platforms.
You’re absolutely right.
January 20, 2008 — 9:03 am