Coldwell Banker Canada Operations ULC officially launched the beta version of its website, www.ColdwellBanker.ca in early November.
Michael Fischer, chief marketing officer for Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC says, “For the new ColdwellBanker.ca we looked at search functionality across various websites including retail and music and continuously asked ourselves, ‘Why not in real estate?’ As a result, we have created exciting new ways to search for homes and real estate agents.”
The site includes a variety of new features, such as:
* BlueScapesm search – Taking cues from popular music recommendation websites, Coldwell Banker developed BlueScapesm, a visually driven real estate search platform to help “dreamers” find just that – the home of their dreams. Instead of limiting search options to postal code or the number of bedrooms, users begin the search by rating abstract images with a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” from landscape scenery to images of snowmobiles and taxi cabs. At any time, users can submit a query and the BlueScapesm technology will identify homes that are a good fit using all properties available on the ColdwellBanker.ca and ColdwellBanker.com web sites.
* Keyword search — For those who prefer a more traditional approach to searching for a home, Coldwell Banker has added keyword capabilities to its general real estate search function so that consumers can more easily narrow down the properties they are interested in viewing. Visitors can enter terms as broad as “modern” or “colonial,” to more specific property descriptions such as “pool,” “dock” or “boat slip.”
* Expansive use of video – The site takes advantage of the popularity of Coldwell Banker On Location, the brand’s YouTube channel. Since the site launch in May 2009, the channel has drawn more than two million channel views.
On Location was the first branded YouTube channel to use dynamic Internet Protocol (IP) lookup to search for videos, which automatically serves up local results when visitors first hit the site.
The site has grown steadily since its launch, but has seen its fastest growth in the last eight months with more than one million views occurring between April 2010 and October 2010. Additionally, mobile use is up. Since April, the number of people who have viewed the site from a mobile device has doubled. While property listings make up the majority of the On Location content, community videos attract the highest number of comments, as visitors enjoy chiming in with input on their hometown or current city.
Additional capabilities of the ColdwellBanker.ca site will be implemented as the full consumer site goes ‘live’ later this year. These capabilities include:
* Technology that immediately identifies the current location of visitors via their IP address, offering up homes for sale in that area.
* Join Us: A recruiting resource enabling brokers to promote job opportunities and create local career pages.
* Learn: Helpful real estate news and tips for consumers, such as real-time industry articles from the national news media.
* Home File: Place for consumers to store, share and organize a limitless amount of property searches, sales representative and real estate office information, and industry articles.
Coldwell Banker will also be including integrated video and social networking capabilities to the new site, the company says.
