Google Presentation Widget

Here's an interesting new feature from Google. We have seen how common embedded YouTube videos have become on websites and blogs. Google have now applied the same concept to Google Docs. If you create a presentation in Google Docs (or upload one built in PowerPoint), you now have the option to publish it with a viewer widget.

This is very easy to do:

1. Log into docs.google.com
   
2. Select 'New' from the menu bar and click on 'Presentation'
   
3. The tools are very simple. It's like using a minimalist PowerPoint.
   
4. You can add images either as uploads or as URLs that point to images on the web.
   
5. Click on the 'Publish' tab on the top right.
   
6. Copy the code in the text box and paste it wherever you want on the web.
   
7. You now have a nifty presentation widget!
   

Growth of Blogs and Readership

Links for 2008-05-21 [del.icio.us]

Posted: 22 May 2008 12:00 AM CDT

• Blogs Blossom into a Big Business - eMarketer
  Statistics and projections on the growth of blogs and readership. eMarketplace estimates that 16% of the internet population will be publishing blogs by 2012. 67% will be reading blogs by 2012.

Online Reputation

The internet has changed over the last few years. Four years ago there were around three million blogs on the internet, now there are well over a hundred million. The number of blogs has doubled every six months. Each one of these blogs acts as a personal forum for the author to publish their opinion on everything and everyone. Other web users can also chime in with their opinions. In addition there are the large social networks such as MySpace and Facebook. Millions of people are not only browsing - but also posting. The website eMarketplace estimates that currently 13% of U.S. web users have their own blogs.

With so many authors - how do you know if anyone is commenting on you?

The internet can have a profound effect on your reputation - both positively and negatively. There is a whole new class of businesses that offer services to establish and protect your online reputation. But there are several things you can do yourself to build, monitor and protect your reputation:

1. Google your name periodically to see what your reputation looks like.
   
2. Set up your profiles on such sites as LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, and Xing. Make sure that when someone searches for you, they will find information that you want them to see.
   
3. Use your real name when you post and comment on subjects on which you are knowledgeable. These posts will appear in searches and will help build your reputation.
   
4. Don't post anything that could be embarrassing. Even if you use a pseudonym, it could be uncovered.
   

Remember that the internet is a very public place. Online content is difficult to remove. A positive online reputation is a great benefit. A negative reputation can be damaging and very hard to repair.

Online Reputation Links

• Blogs Blossom into a Big Business - eMarketer
  Statistics and projections on the growth of blogs and readership. eMarketplace estimates that 16% of the internet population will be publishing blogs by 2012. 67% will be reading blogs by 2012. Thanks to Vicki Ziegler for this link!
  
• Online Business Networking.
  "Increasingly people accept that Facebook serves a different function than LinkedIn. In simple terms: deals on LinkedIn, dates on Facebook. But the real race for business networking has two horses. LinkedIn is clearly one. The other is not Facebook, but Xing"
  

Web Links May 13, 2008

• gethuman
  Are you fed up with wasting your time in annoying automated voice-mail systems? Help undermine this technology with gethuman.com. This site shows you how to get past voice-mail and speak to a real person at various companies.
• XML in 10 points
  A really good explanation of XML. Although it is not quite a house-hold term yet, XML appears in a lot of conversations. If you are curious, here's a nice, simple ten point list that explains what it is and what it is used for.

Web Links May 12, 2008

• Splashup
  A web based photo editing tool. This program works as as flash application within your browser. You get powerful picture editing functionality in a completely web based application. Access and edit Publish Post from anywhere!

New Google Earth Beta

An amazing new version of Google Earth is now out. It is version 4.3 but it is still in beta. There are some excellent new features that include:

• Time of day. You can select the time of day and the program will adjust the lighting and even create shadows on mountain terrain and buildings.
  
• Weather and clouds. You can turn on layers to show cloud-cover and radar images. When you are at ground level these are realistically rendered above you.
  
• 3D buildings. These are best in US cities. As soon as you zoom to a city simple models appear and then they are rendered with more detail over time. They look very realistic.
  
• Street View. In some cities there are now interactive panoramic photos that you can jump into all along city streets.
  
• Flight simulator. You can now fly around in a jet! I managed to crash mine into the ground.
  

Here is a great video of what it looks like. The original source is the Google Earth Blog. Thanks to the folks at My Tech Opinion where I first found this.

I installed this and my experience was not quite as smooth and seamless as in this movie. In particular I had some issues with the streaming of the images. Detailed images did not appear as I zoomed in. This is still a beta. I would recommend waiting to upgrade until it is fully released.

Space Database Stacking Plans

The Space Database stacking plan is a back-end service that supplies content to many commercial real estate websites. It is one of our key technical innovations that facilitate getting marketing drawings out to prospective tenants as quickly and easily as possible.

Our stacking plan is a website tool that seamlessly blends into a clients leasing and marketing site. This can look any way clients want it to look:

Here is a sleek and cool version that includes a tabular report as well as leasing contact information:

And here is a version that gives you a great sense of what the building is actually like. In this case the vacancy information is semi-transparent and 'floats' over the building image:

In both of these cases the diagrams are integrated with live data from the Space Database drawing management application. Any changes made within the program are automatically and instantly updated. Links in the stack will pull up PDF file drawings of the available space.

In addition to measuring buildings, creating re-usable CAD files and calculating areas in accordance to BOMA 96, Space Database also provides the software and services to make all of this information accessible and useful. Our software and services streamline and speed up the leasing process. We help landlords find new tenants and we help speed up the process of getting them moved in.

Web Links May 7, 2008

• Gliffy a free, web based diagramming tool similar to Visio
  This website offers a web based tool that allows you to create flowcharts, floor plans, org charts and network diagrams. Think of it as a Google docs version of Visio! The free version allows for up to five diagrams a month. You can upgrade for a modest fee
• HTML Playground, html, css reference by example
  A great tool for web design. More than a list of tags and their meanings, this site lets you play with the code right on screen and instantly see the results. A great reference tool.

New Del.icio.us Links

A new feature of this blog is that I will be sharing my Del.icio.us web links as blog posts. These will appear as a daily compilation on any day after I have added these links. At the bottom of the blog you will find a tag cloud of topics in my Del.icio.us account.

Tech Note - how I set this up:

Del.icio.us has a tool called a 'Thingy' that is supposed to publish a link compilation automatically to a blog - but it does not seem to work for this platform (Blogger). But if you know of a way - let me know!

Here's the work-around that I used. It is based on a solution by
Anand Kishore. Here's what I did: How to get Del.ico.us daily blog posting to appear in Blogger:

1. Set up a new blank blog in Blogger. This blog won't be used for anything so it does not matter what it looks like. It's only role is to be the root of an RSS feed.
   
2. Configure the blog where you want these posts to appear to receive posts by email. (i.e. not the blank one you just set up) You can find this under "Settings/Email". Click on "Save emails as draft posts" you might want to edit what these look like before the world sees them.
   
3. Next pick up the feed in Feedburner. This is a feed from an empty blog so it will have nothing in it.
   
4. Under the "Optimize" tab, I turned on the "Link Splicer" feature. This allows you to tap into your Del.icio.us account and add your new links as an item in the feed.
   
5. Open up the RSS feed in your browser (the RSS icon at the top left of the page) You should see a compilation of your Del.icio.us links.
   
6. Click on the "Get … delivered by email" link. Enter in the email of your blog. If you add any links to Del.icio.us, you should see this as a draft post the next morning!
   

Again, if you know of a simpler or better way of doing this, please post a comment!

Web Links May 6, 2008

Links for 2008-05-06 [del.icio.us]

Posted: 07 May 2008 12:00 AM CDT

• Semantic Void » Blog Archive » Post Del.icio.us Links To Blogger Now
  work-around for delicous link into blogger
• FLARE-facade
  called a 'kinetic ambient reflection membrane' this is an interesting architectural facade treatment that allows for the creation of dynamic patterns using reflected light. Check out the video.
• The Web Credibility Project: Guidelines - Stanford University
  How can you boost your web site's credibility? We have compiled 10 guidelines for building the credibility of a web site. These guidelines are based on three years of research that included over 4,500 people.
• Canadian Architect - 5/6/2008 - Switch Building
  A Refreshingly Innovative Spec Building On The Lower East Side. interesting small condo development in NY. Several cool design ideas. nARCHITECTS

Are Residential Brokers Technology Leaders?

There's a stereotype that residential real estate agents are amateurs; that most of them work part time and they have nowhere near the business sophistication or sales skills of commercial brokers. This might be true in some ways, but in one aspect residential brokers are way ahead of their commercial peers: the use of the interactive web to build a network, market themselves and generate more revenue.

I've come to this conclusion by rather unsophisticated means - only web browsing really - but here are some examples of what I have found:

Residential brokers are keen on technology and there is a lot of online support to help them leverage new web tools. Here are three:

• A blog by Loren Nason called Future of Real Estate Technology, focuses on technology for real estate agents. "you will find some technology products are a waste of your time and money, and others are the best investment you can make." Loren will help you tell the difference.
  
• Here is another site that helps agents leverage technology. On My Tech Opinion you can learn about new real estate sites and services. They have tips on social networking and you can find out, amongst other things, how to use web based mapping and how to insert YouTube video into PowerPoint.
  
• Joel Burslem's blog The Future of Real Estate Marketing examines the impact of the Internet on real estate and real estate marketing. He offers lots of information that allows agents to harness web 2.0 technologies.
  

Then there are a whole host of web based services and applications that support residential agents. Here are three:

• Trulia is a real estate search engine that incorporates some interesting web technology. There are map based searches that are built as mash-ups on top of Google Maps. You can take virtual walks in neighbourhoods - using Google Street View. Agents can showcase their expertise by participating in the 'Advice & Opinions' community.


• Home Gain is a service that connects real estate professionals. It also now provides a blogging platform for real estate agents to build their online communities.


• Zolve is a social network for real estate professionals. Agents can chat and share tips and ideas. They can also write blogs and promote themselves in various ways. This site has some nifty interface features.

So why do residential agents seem to be so far ahead in the use of interactive web technology and social networking? I can think of three reasons:

1. First, most of these people work independently. Where do they find help? Most likely, they will turn to a web-search to find tools that they can use. They cannot rely on IT departments and are therefore keen on web based solutions.


2. Second, residential agents do not know who their next customer will be - but they know it someone that knows someone they know. Web based social networking is a natural extension of how a good agent operates anyway: build a network and keep it warm.


3. Third, many large companies with big offices are working hard to control web 2.0 applications. Many IT departments block these tools at the firewall. These sites are seem as a threat to corporate security and control. Perhaps commercial agents, who work in offices, are discouraged, if not prevented, from using the social web for work?

Of course there are exceptions. There are commercial brokers who are using the new tools effectively. Here's a good example. Look at what Hans Hansson is doing on his blog at Starboard TCN.

Hans candidly shares his experience in the business and he offers very good advice to prospective clients. It's surprising that more commercial brokers don't have a web presence like this.

What do you think? Are commercial real estate agents, brokers and landlords missing out on the social web? Or is it not a medium that they would benefit from as much as the residential folk do?