Great work on providing an open and mobile friendly interface,
I am building a mobile application (J2ME) and have some suggestions that may make development of similar applications easier. I hope my list is not too long.
Partial Addresses: Entering an address on a mobile phone can be tedious. The ability to search for a property or retrieve a list of results from a partial address would ameliorate this process.
Searching via Location (LBS): On a GPS equipped mobile device we will have access to the latitude and longitude of the user. It would be nice to use the location of the device to automatically display results when the application launches.
Photos: Show a thumbnail next to a property result adds a very nice touch any UI.
Mobile Specific Restrictions/Requirements: It is difficult to adhere to some of the API use restrictions when building a mobile application. For example, the Zillow logos are quite large for a mobile device and linking to the Zillow site, although possible, is less than ideal in the J2ME context. In addition, caching can greatly improve the user experience, reduce cost, and reduce server requests.
There is a short video walkthrough. The application is working (live) and the address textfield is pre-filled in the UI to save time. I have tested it on my phone and it works well end to end.
Stating a discriminatory preference in an advertisement for housing is illegal. If you think this content is discriminatory or otherwise inappropriate and feel it should be removed from Zillow, please let us know by completing the information above.
Zillow and J2ME
I am building a mobile application (J2ME) and have some suggestions that may make development of similar applications easier. I hope my list is not too long.
Partial Addresses: Entering an address on a mobile phone can be tedious. The ability to search for a property or retrieve a list of results from a partial address would ameliorate this process.
Searching via Location (LBS): On a GPS equipped mobile device we will have access to the latitude and longitude of the user. It would be nice to use the location of the device to automatically display results when the application launches.
Photos: Show a thumbnail next to a property result adds a very nice touch any UI.
Mobile Specific Restrictions/Requirements: It is difficult to adhere to some of the API use restrictions when building a mobile application. For example, the Zillow logos are quite large for a mobile device and linking to the Zillow site, although possible, is less than ideal in the J2ME context. In addition, caching can greatly improve the user experience, reduce cost, and reduce server requests.
You can view the application I building here:
http://www.worlddeveloper.org/www/galleryview.html?fid=6989
There is a short video walkthrough. The application is working (live) and the address textfield is pre-filled in the UI to save time. I have tested it on my phone and it works well end to end.
Stating a discriminatory preference in an advertisement for housing is illegal. If you think this content is discriminatory or otherwise inappropriate and feel it should be removed from Zillow, please let us know by completing the information above.
We will review this content. Thanks for helping make the site more useful to everyone. To learn more, read Zillow's Good Neighbor Policy.