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Do You Belong in the Cloud?

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When most people talk about "cloud" computing they're usually referring to an application that is not installed on a local computer that you access via the internet AKA Software as a Service (SaaS).  Salesforce.com, ClientLook, Google Apps...those are SaaS/"cloud" applications. But there's also cloud platforms (APIs...) that allow you to develop web based applications or infrastructure clouds - public ones like Amazon's Elastic Cloud - or private ones created by companies for internal use. … [Read more...]

Google Scraps GoogleBase for Real Estate

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Google announced on one of  their blogs that they're discontinuing GoogleBase and retiring the GoogleBase API (June 2011).  They cited the success of unnamed real estate sites (like the ones they were rumored to want to buy??) and the expanded and "innovative" use of the Google Maps API as making GoogleBase redundant...not to mention low usage of their real estate map search. If you weren't familiar with GoogleBase, it was a great way to put your data out in "the cloud" for searchers to find … [Read more...]

Quora – The Next Big Thing – or Not?

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A few months ago my son was bugging me to check out Quora, which he claimed was the next big thing.  The buzz had been that it was an "expert" question and answer site, so I took a look.   It wasn't totally clear who the experts were - looked like a standard Q&A site with better organization.  Some answers were rated, apparently the higher, the better (nothing new there...)  and you could spell out your qualifications as to why you felt you were an expert...though not many users had done … [Read more...]

LoopNet Pro Tools

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Guest column I wrote for DukeLong.com reviewing LoopNet's Pro Tools: LoopNet has taken another step in becoming a single marketing resource for commercial brokerages and agents. With the acquisition of ReactionWeb ( http://www.reactionweb.com ), LoopNet ( http://www.loopnet.com ) has modified that platform specifically for LoopNet enterprise subscribers. What’s an “enterprise subscriber”? It’s a brokerage who has a multi-agent deal with LoopNet so that the agents have premium access to … [Read more...]

What to Spend Your Time on in 2011 (and what not to waste in on…)

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What the commercial agent should be focusing on and what not to waste their time on in 2011 - IMHO... SKIP IT QR Codes These are either ahead of their time, redundant or just not applicable to commercial real estate.  Only about a quarter of the population has a data-enabled phone and for these to work well, the camera has to be good quality (and good lighting conditions).  There are different formats, readers - it's just too confusing not to mention annoying to have to take a photo of … [Read more...]

ClientLook’s New CRM App

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Attended a webinar for ClientLook's new CRM app (due first quarter 2011).  I know of several agents who use the current version now and really like it but haven't seen it myself.  This new version, though, is terrific.  Nice clean interface, very "Act!-like" in that it associates events/emails/docs/whatever you can enter with a contact (and the company their associated with).  Plus, you can share projects and documents with clients, team members...or anyone for that matter. The new version will … [Read more...]