search.ch just launched the new beta real estate search (immo.beta.search.ch). It is one of the last projects that I started when I was still CTO at search.ch and it's great to finally see it online. See the post on the company blog (in german) for more details.
It aggregates objects from about 20 real estate sites in Switzerland, constantly adding more. It even includes sites that offer rooms for students.
It's AJAX all over the place. With neat details like to incrementally loading result list on the left, the small bar charts above the sliders (so that you know wether you have to allow higher prices or smaller flats, or just get a general feeling for an area), updated in real time.
You will see all available objects in the map, and the ones visible in the list at the left are highlighted (try scrolling and see how they change). Actually just missed objects are also still on the map. One of the neat feature the team added after I left is the behavior there: The non-matching criteria is highlighted red and when you click it the according slider is adjusted to include this object.
Another nice part is the list management. Looking for the next flat or house is a process that goes on for a longer time, so you'll want to keep track of what you liked, tossed out again and so on. You can mark objects and you can keep notes. Best of all, when you return you get the exact same query that you had when you left last time and all the new objects since your last (and the one before) are separated by a marker.
The search.ch team did an excellent job, I'm proud of them! Congrats!
Update: A small translation table until the site is translated:
Wohnung, Einfamilienhaus, Ferien, Mehrfamilienhaus, Büro, Garage, Grundstück: Appartment, Single Family Home, Cottage, Multi Family Home, Office, Parking lot, land
mieten, kaufen: rent, buy
Preis, Zimmer, Fläche, Ort: Price, Rooms, Area, "Where".
Very nice!! Especially the sliders are a real innovation - or at least I haven't seen them anywhere else before. Adds real value.
On the downside: The application is a little bit slow (quite understandably) and it's packed with features that still lack "convention", which might somehow unsettle non-powerusers.
Posted by: Helge at December 16, 2005 06:03 PMHelge: It will be interesting to see what non-powerusers will do with the site. Initial feedback by these users is quite good and as such a real estate application is quite a good test case: It is a long process and you will use the site a lot, so I hope users don't mind a little learning investment when it will save the a lot of time further on. But of course, if the learning curve is to steep, this would still be a problem. I'll report back :)
Posted by: Bernhard Seefeld at December 20, 2005 11:32 AMhui, dann muss ich wohl bald zügeln, wenn ihr so ein tolles tool gemacht habt. macht freude damit rumzuspielen!
Posted by: habi at December 22, 2005 05:17 PM