Jun. 30, 2009 - Is your web site 'valid'?

In my previous post, ("Web design: size matters" http://www.realtown.com/mattcohen/blog/web-design-size-matters) I explained why poor webdesign in terms of website page size is as much a concern for executives and other business owners as for web designers and (of course) consumers.

Now I want to bring up something that will surprise many people - executives and technical staff alike: Most industry web sites don't use valid HTML. HTML is the primary building block for the web, and it is astonishing that most web sites can't manage to use it correctly.

Why is valid HTML important?

• It helps ensure the site will work as new browsers are released
• It helps ensure a consistent experience cross-browser
• It makes web applications easier and less expensive to maintain
• It facilitates web accessibility (to differently abled individuals)
• It can enhance search engine optimization (SEO) - or at least really badly invalid HTML can have a negative impact.

If you are contracting for - or having your staff build - a web application, valid HTML should be a basic expectation!

But look at the chart  below - comparing 46 industry search sites (as discussed in my previous post) with over 350 MLS public listing sites (as discussed  in "A Study of Multiple Listing Service Public Listings Websites"  http://www.realtown.com/mattcohen/blog/2009-mls-web-sites-study). Only 1% of the MLS public listings sites and 7% of the industry search sites use valid HTML.



Some MLS vendors also talk about how important standards are - but visiting their home pages only a single MLS vendor (Stratus) is HTML standard compliant at the time of this posting.

Ironically, even RealTown (my blog host) has made it impossible for this blog to be HTML compliant - though I've asked them to  correct this and anticipate they will do so at some point. Of course my own professional web site is HTML compliant as one would expect.

Using valid HTML is an important part of building a web application - hopefully this blog post and the one previous to it have illustrated that web application best practices are not exactly universal in our industry and deserve more attention and oversight.

Test your own site here: http://validator.w3.org/

 

Jun. 24, 2009 - Web design: size matters

When developing a property listings website, basic good webmastering skills and attention to detail is important to create a good user experience. Recently a client complained to me that their site seemed slow to them – upon review I found to my horror that the home page was full of bad code and un-optimized images, and that the page topped out at over 800 kilobytes (kb)! Sub-pages weren’t any better. Even on a high-speed connection, downloading close to a megabyte to display a page is going to make a site seem sluggish. Even worse, if the site is at all popular, large page sizes increase bandwidth costs. If you are an executive, you just read the most important sentence in this blog post - there’s money at stake here!

In the example I was discussing earlier, when confronted with the review, the webmaster tried to make excuses – to paraphrase and sum up: “Look, this listings site over here is comparably large”.  Sorry, that doesn’t fly. Using the 1000 Watt Consulting list of Web 2.0 search sites and adding additional relevant sites from the Hitwise Top 20, I looked to see how large the home pages of 46 popular real estate search sites are, in terms of compressed kilobytes. The results:

The chart below shows a visual representation of the research results. Note that the X axis labels have been removed so as not to embarrass the most ridiculously poorly constructed sites.

Page load size is only one aspect of good design. For a good discussion of design, see Rob Hahn’s blog post and discussion - http://www.notorious-rob.com/2009/06/19/dear-brokers-please-spend-money-on-design/. I could go on for hours talking about all the things one should look for in web applications – I’m sure I’ll come back to some of them in future blog posts.

But for now all I’ll say is (insert shameless plug here) please consider getting a second set of eyes on your web application.

Jun. 19, 2009 - Blue Dasher Technologies - Google Street View on Steroids

Three months ago, attendees of  the MLS Executive Workshop got a sneak preview of Blue Dasher's street-level imaging technology. Now that they've officially put out a press release, I can finally talk about the technology more publicly.

Many people might compare Blue Dasher Technology (BDT) to Google Street View - allowing the user to navigate a neighborhood and see the properties in their geographic context as if driving by them. That's about where the similarities end.

While Google has designed its product focused on the general public, Blue Dasher (BDT) designs products focused on specific business needs. The company is about exactness and placing you at the front door of a property once you’ve entered an address or clicked on a map. It also covers every public street in a county - not just 'hot spot' coverage like Google has in various markets. Google street view does not allow you to drive, you must click and wait from one frame to the next, skipping a great deal of information in the process.Google's photo spacing is about 30 to 40 feet average. BDT's is 8 to 10 feet, offering high density photography with more angles for properties and more actual clean Jpeg images of a property the realtor can utilize as part of their service. This equates to about six to 12 images of most homes. BDT offers Virtual Drive By (motion easily controlled by the end user - like in a video game) and "automatic" Virtual Drive By (routes) - Google does not. BDT offers embedded location based advertising (virtual "for sale" signs too) in their images - this can contain listing information, photos of the interior, virtual tours or even video. Finally, Blue Dasher leaves cars behind in major metros to maintain or refresh images - dealing with privacy and quality issues on request - while Google is less responsive.

Okay, okay - one final difference - this technology isn't free. But that's the cost of differentiating, and I think virtual drive-bys, exactness and location based messaging could be pretty darn appealing to consumers - especially if/when gas prices go back up! And the technology, which provides location based and contextual adverting opportunities for local companies, does provide an opportunity to defer the costs or even generate revenue.

Internet property search has already cut down the amount of time in the car for Realtors – this could help the decision-making process become even more efficient and less time-consuming for Realtors and consumers by providing a compelling mechanism to view the neighborhood surrounding the properties being considered. So, I'm bullish on this type of technology.

Here's a demo video: http://www.bluedashertech.com/demo1.php

Their home page is here: http://www.bluedashertech.com/

Jun. 18, 2009 - NAR and PCI Compliance Revisited

NAR sent out another letter recently making it clear that it is still their belief that organizations using their payment gateway do not need to worry about their own PCI compliance. So, I recently validated my position (http://www.realtown.com/mattcohen/blog/nar-and-pci-compliance) that MLSs and Associations that take credit cards MUST have their own security assessment process and PCI compliance - they can NOT depend on NAR to take care of security/PCI for them unless members/subscribers only enter card information directly into the NAR payment gateway. I got a second opinion from one of the most highly certified and respected security professionals in the U.S. - Paul A. Henry MCP+I, MCSE, CCSA, CCSE, CISSP-ISSAP, CISM, CISA, CIFI, CCE. I'm sure we'll be chatting with the folks at NAR soon enough...

So, if you're not on the path toward information security and PCI compliance as needed .... don't wait - contact me!

UPDATE: I now have a call set up with some smart folks at NAR ... hopefully we can get the confusion resolved and end up with a unified message.