I found some time to check out the Google Wave Developer preview on youtube a few days ago. And darn if I haven’t thought to myself: “This’ll be way easier and more fun to do once Wave comes” at least 10 times since.
So here are some possible applications that have crept into my head. Keep in mind these are all based on the little “taste” this “junkie” got from the preview video, so I’m not even sure a few of these will be doable, but what better place to toss this stuff out than here at BHB?
What Will Change In Real Estate Brokerage Once Google Wave Takes Over The World?
Single Property Websties
I imagine a Wave template that pictures, documents, videos, maps, etc are all dragged into from the desktop or the web. I’m assuming here that we’ll then be able to purchase a domain name for each property and map it to a public url for the “public” version of the wave.
Listing and Conveyancing Folders
Save the trees baby! Can you see creating a wave for a listing or pending sales folder, then inviting other parties to the transaction to participate in the Wave? Need a copy of the Seller’s Disclosure? It’s in the Wave? How about the listing contract? In the Wave. (But only sharable to parties who should see it.)
Buyer Presentations?
Got a new buyer. Drag in the pre-approval letter. Add some links to the Wave MLS Single Property Pages for the listings you’ll be touring tomorrow. Answer the buyer’s questions about agency, marketing conditions, financing, or whatever, from right within the wave, in real time! Heck, even drag in those Google Voice Text Transcriptions! Can you imagine how comprehensive this search-able record of the whole interaction from web lead to settlement will be? Don’t do or say anything stupid! It’ll be in the Wave! (And don’t try to delete your shannanigans either, cause Wave records all edits. Freaky…)
Company Training / Office Procedures / Systems Manuals
Alive, breathing, dynamic, EASILY ENHANCED AND IMPROVED UPON …. In a Wave!
Company Intranet?
Wave. Enough said?
Niche Blogs / Forums
Waves? Waves with tons of contributors? Hmm…
Contract Software… E Signatures?
Who needs separate apps… Put it all in a Wave
Facebook Pages?
Why bother? Too lunky… Join The Wave!
Facebook V. Google?
I just wanted to add this last thought in… it’s more of an observation than an assumed likely innovation. I’ve recently all but stopped spending cash on google adwords. Instead, I’ve been buying super targeted ads with Facebook because the fact that you can pretty much choose who sees and follows your ad is, well, a huge improvement on adwords imo…
But…with Wave…I wonder. Will we be able to only advertise alongside Waves? Waves initiated in a certain geographic area? Waves with certain keywords? Waves with x number of participants? Waves updated within the last few minutes?
I think Wave’s “Live Collaborative Editing” is going to lure people away from Social Media sites like facebook, and away from webmail services like Yahoo… I think that at least short term, Wave will do a ton to further the GOOG’s plans for utter domination of… well everything. 🙂
And it may change a whole lot more than just email and social networking. When everything gets faster, freer, and more transparent, will industries change?
Might MLS’s as we know them die and be replaced with a deliciously publicly controlled version? Going back to the Single Property Website idea… Can you imagine a universally accepted “Single Property Wave Template” for Real Estate listings that’s dead simple for all agents to create, fast, pretty, and yeah, indexable, searchable, and available to anyone who might be interested?
Not sure what the frak I’m talking about? Get some popcorn, some vaseline, a few wet naps… and lock the doors. Here’s the vid that has this geek jizzin:
Al Lorenz says:
Ryan,
I was just working on a post about how reinvention in real estate has been continual. It has been feeling more like work than fun to me probably because it seems like you have to reinvent just to tread water.
Google’s Wave is cool though! And it is not just cool, but could really make for some productive changes in the way we all work
Thanks
June 25, 2009 — 12:15 pm
David Orsini says:
My mind is going a mile a minute after watching that demo. We are right in the middle of developing our CMS solution; hopefully we will be done before this launches. I can easily see us fitting some of these API features into our version 2. There are some very cool client communication possibilities with this tool!
June 25, 2009 — 12:26 pm
Cheryl Johnson says:
Oh yeah, I think I could do alot with that. And of course, it will make a bunch of stuff I just worked on for the last six months or so obsolete. 🙂
Ryan, did you sign up for a developer account?
https://services.google.com/fb/forms/wavesignupfordev/
June 26, 2009 — 3:57 am
Cheryl Johnson says:
Sign up to be a bug finder here:
https://services.google.com/fb/forms/wavesignup/
June 26, 2009 — 4:10 am
Mark Fidelman says:
It may not be ready for real estate. I could image it to be a decent negotiating tool (when negotiating a contract) but I can’t see it replacing the MLS.
June 27, 2009 — 10:02 pm
Eric Blackwell says:
Ryan-
I think it (WAVE) has the potential to be a game changer. Whether it gets the users / eyeballs / online presence or not, it shows you that there is continual innovation ahead.
**Eric takes aspirin**
I am not sure it will take the place of real estate brokerage per se, I think that all depends on whether brokerages adapt or die. (Which IMO is the real question…)
I do feel like Al that the pace of innovation has us all running just to tread water.
I also think that WAVE certainly makes more collaborative sense and can speed up the process.
Best
Eric
June 28, 2009 — 4:59 am
Don Reedy says:
Ryan,
This is pretty cool, from a non-geek point of view as well, since even us more philosophical types can appreciate creativity.
I read Eric’s and Al’s notes with interest since this reminds me of the question about whether we have gained anything significant with the space program over the last forty years. Opponents say it’s a waste, while proponents point out the many technological, manufacturing and lifestyle changes that have emerged from regular old “space technology.”
Here’s the nugget I’m taking out of your post, Eric’s comment, and the Wave itself. It looks like it’s going to be pretty spectacular. It’s going to go places that geeks will love, semi-geeks will rub up against, and non geeks will ignore until (like the space program) the world changes not only in front of them, but for them.
Real estate, my young, insightful, creative and singularly adept friend, is already an industry that is late to the game in so many respects, that I think Eric accurately points out that even the Wave probably will keep most of our industry treading water.
But what about those of us who figure out how to swim parallel to the shore line, avoid the rip currents, and navigate further up the beach to not only safer, but sandier beaches?
When you ride waves you get plenty of sand in your trunks, and because it’s addictive, you can get sunburned pretty easily. So, Ryan, you bring the vaseline. I’ll bring the sunscreen. Let’s Hang Ten!
June 28, 2009 — 2:53 pm