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While many startups aspire to become “The Property of Google,” UK-based DotHomes wants to be “the Google of property.”

Just when you thought the days of aspiring Googles had ended, vertical search took on a life of its own. In real estate, Zillow, Trulia, Craigslist, Redfin and other sites have become classic disruptors in the marketplace.

In the UK, the disruptor was DotHomes.co.uk. After conquering South Africa, DotHomes (free for consumers and realtors) has crossed the pond to the U.S.

Greg Sterling of Screenwerk is all gloomy about survival prospects for 10-12 real estate search engines. He likes the Bob Tedeschi POV in his NY Times E-Commerce Report today, Despite Housing Slide, Real Estate Sites Sell . Tedeschi quotes Nielsen Online that the number of ads displayed on real estate sites are down, though the number of visitors is up.

The DotHomes press release notes in big caps that it “DOES NOT” host realtor listings on its site, only result summaries. Users are directed to the agents’ original listings, from the more than 1 million broker listings aggregated.

Other Googly features: one-box search, customized for natural language queries, and the potentially dangerous “I’m Feeling Wealthy” button to view the most expensive U.S. homes on the market.

I may have found an error in the pricing of a home. See if you can find the sky-high property in a town not known for $40 million properties in the “I’m Feeling Wealthy” New York, NY listings and let me know if I’m way off base.

A couple great Web 2.0 benefits of the DotHomes site for real estate brokers:

Heat maps of local prices per square foot may not be as popular with brokers as “On-the-fly video uploads” designed to make updating DotHomes easier.

Now DotHomes and the Flip video camera may give a whole new meaning to “flipping properties.”

It seems like a sitcom gag in which a character, out of time and ideas, tries to promote an old product as a new one by scratching off a single letter.  Instead, we’ve got Jimmy Wales, and the old/new product is none other than Facebook.
Maybe this is all a joke; although I’ve never met [...]

Google hid an Easter egg so well it wasn’t found until nearly Labor Day, in South Africa, where I’m not even sure if they have Labor Day. Doesn’t matter, it’s not really an Easter egg, either, it’s a flight simulator tucked inside of the most recent release of Google Earth.

Google Hides Flight Simulator In Earth

The [...]

Starbucks, McDonalds, and Google - I’m starting to think that, by 2040 or so, there will be at least one building per company on every square mile of this planet.  The latest bit of evidence supporting this theory is Google’s plan to expand into Kenya.
My surprise at this move shouldn’t be construed as an [...]

Bango has released statistics that show that the United States use of the mobile Web has increased three fold in the last year, making it second only to the UK.

They say the popularity of mobile search is the reason for the rise in mobile Web usage. Bango says that the top five countries accessing the [...]

Mike Grehan has joined Bruce Clay Inc. as its VP of international business development. According to Lisa Barone, his role will include strategy, servicing key accounts, and international training:
In his new role as VP of International Business Development, Mike will routinely be let out of the storage closet, but only if he promises to help [...]

A popular South African columnists not just reduced the blogosphere to a concert hall of air guitar players (which is pretty funny, you got to admit), but placed anonymous blogger "wackos" in a camp with the Virginia Tech shooter – and not so much in the metaphoric sense.  One blogger’s calling it "Bullardgate," but it’s [...]

Once a year, Conan O’Brien gives a “State of the Show Address” address, and for a certain audience, it’s great - but not everyone cares about this late-night comedian’s realm.  As Dave Sifry gave a “State of the Live Web Address,” as opposed to a “State of the Blogosphere,” some onlookers feel he’s addressing a [...]