Mark brings with him 20 years of experience in the geospatial data creation industry. Previously, he served as the Director of Engineering at TomTom (post acquisition by Tele Atlas in 2008), and Director of Engineering at Tele Atlas. As Director of Engineering at Maponics, Mark will head up several major data development initiatives in 2012.

Welcome Mark!

Did you know that the Top 3 Real Estate Websites, Zillow, Realtor.com and Trulia.com, all depend on Maponics data to boost their revenue? Learn more about what Maponics can do for your real estate business here.

One trend that directories – which have a fairly traditional business model – are obviously struggling with is how to incorporate discovery (i.e., mobile search, social media, and deals/coupons) into their model.  As Darrin says in the interview, many are simply bolting on features, when it might be more prudent to rebuild platforms from the ground up.  This reluctance to revamp is allowing newer players to claim more of the business.  In fact, the leaders in mobile search, social media, and coupons/deals are using Maponics data to do just that as they master the delivery of non-search based geo-relevant content.

Geofence data from Maponics includes predefined boundaries that represent the way real consumers think about the world. With them,  the entire search and discovery paradigm can reflect the on-the-ground geography familiar to consumers.  In addition to struggling with the discovery-side of the equation – many second tier directories are also flagging because they skip the geo step altogether, or rely on lower quality “free” geo data that is simply inadequate for professional grade applications.

You can read the BIA/Kelsey post here.

Access the full episode here (Darrin starts at 32:12):

This Week In Location Based Marketing – Episode #59

If you haven’t tuned in to this podcast before, we highly recommend it. Rob Woodbridge and Asif Kahn excel at keeping those of us in location based marketing on top of the latest industry developments in a fun, casual way.

This month you’ll also hear a fair amount about Maponics – we’re sponsoring all January episodes. Listen to learn more about how targeting ads using predefined geofences (neighborhoods, shopping malls, college campuses, more) helps local mobile advertisers deliver more relevant ads.

Don’t have time to listen, but interested in predefined geofences for mobile marketing? Take advantage of the free 3 month API or data trial we’re offering LBMA listeners!

Details:

Panel: The Future of Real Estate Search: What’s Next?
Date: Thursday, January 12th
Time: 3:25 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Location:  New York Marriott Marquis, 1535 Broadway, New York, New York 10036

Maponics is a leader in spatial technology application for the real estate industry. The top three real estate websites, and the National Association of Realtors’ RPR (Realtors’ Property Resource), all rely on Maponics map data to improve their search functions.

Want to meet with someone from Maponics at Real Estate Connect New York City?

Contact us today!

Session specifics:

Date: Thursday, November 10th
Time: 4:00 PM – 4:45 PM
Location: Dumbo Spot, Brooklyn, New York

Doors for the summit open at 3:00 PM and close at 10:00 PM.  The event will include three panel sessions, Local Mapping, Location Intelligence and Augmented Reality. It also includes two breaks for networking.  Learn more and register here.

The image below shows homes that fall within the school attendance zone for Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington.

In addition to school boundaries, Maponics also offers neighborhood, subdivision, and ZIP Code boundaries that are ideal for Real Estate and local search sites. Read our announcement this week on the expansion of our neighborhood and subdivision boundaries to more than 300,000 here.

Interested in learning more? Contact us today at info@maponics.com or call 1-800-762-5158

We’ve continued to innovate in this arena and have delivered a truly unique dataset.  Subdivisions represent the fundamental unit of geography for the residential real estate landscape.  But, until now, the real estate industry has had no reliable and systematic source for subdivision boundary data.  With wide scale coverage across the U.S., subdivision boundaries support a host of real estate services aimed at both consumers and real estate professionals that improve:

• search and display
• interactive mapping
• trend and analytics reporting
• automated valuation models

I think Darrin Clement, our CEO, said it best when he said:

“Subdivision Boundaries is an excellent example of automation, GIS expertise, and a focus on quality coming together to create a product that addresses a fundamental industry need.  I’m extremely proud of our team for developing an innovative approach that not only represents significant intellectual property, but also enables us to respond quickly to customer requests for geographic coverage and provide a new set of custom polygon services.”

For current geographic coverage details or information, Contact us.

Click here to request Sample Subdivision Boundary Data.

We all know that the number of online and mobile resources for real estate search have proliferated in recent years but it takes consumers time to change their habits and adopt new technology.  It appears that Web resources are now firmly embedded as the primary way for people to search for residential real estate—in fact more than 80% of respondents reported using online tools.

In a story written by the Philadelphia Inquirer about the survey, they point out that the number one online resource for real estate search were property portals and noted that “The big three among these sites were Realtor.com (64 percent), Zillow (61 percent), and Trulia (51 percent).”

We are of course pleased that the top sites all leverage Maponics location datasets to enhance search capability and provide local geographic context for areas such as neighborhood, school and ZIP Code Boundaries.  Visit our customer use case pages to read about how one of these companies uses our data.

And this summer, we will begin offering a first-of-its kind dataset containing subdivision boundaries across major metro areas.  Read more about Subdivision Boundaries.

From our Subdivision Boundaries announcement:

In suburban settings, the smallest defined area around properties is typically the subdivision—which can include everything from a few homes within a gated community to a development with hundreds of properties.  The real estate industry has long recognized that the immediate area surrounding properties significantly impacts quality of life and home values.

In the Inquirer article, they also note that driving through neighborhoods is still a common house hunting practice, although people now use online resources to winnow the list of properties they visit—saving money and precious time.  The good news here is that in addition to using our data to enhance their web sites, many of our customers also embed our data in their mobile apps to provide enhanced location context for home buyers on the go.

For more ideas about how mobile real estate apps could add cool new features based on Maponics geofences, check out this article on Directions Magazine.

Darrin will join Martijn Beijk of Onetomarket and Philippe Huysmans from Microsoft, as a panelist for the “What’s New In Local & Mobile” session.

Planning to attend the SMX Advanced London?  Don’t miss this great session! Details below:

Vertical SEM Track

What’s New In Local & Mobile – According to Google, as many as 30% of all search queries have local intent. And according to IDC, more internet-capable mobile devices will be sold this year than computers. In short, local and mobile are both here and huge, and will continue to be an important part of many search marketer’s activities. This session looks at new developments in local search, location services, mobile apps and ads.

Date: Tuesday, May 17^th.
Time: 3:00pm-4:15pm
Location: Millennium Gloucester Hotel & Conference Centre in London.