Rain City Guide

Google is now predicting traffic in the future to help you avoid nasty Seattle traffic on freeways, but that is nothing compared to…
Microsoft’s Clear Flow doesn’t just tell you that traffic usually sucks on Thursdays at 5:30 (because if you’ve driven on I5 twice at rush hour, you already know that). It tells you the [...]

A huge congratulations goes out to Robbie! He has been an extremely valuable member of the RCG community and I only hope we can keep him interested in real estate (especially since he runs the backend of my wife’s MLS search site!).

Several years ago, I attended a summer retreat in blissful Colorado Springs. And while I didn’t retain an abundance of what I experienced on that 10-day retreat, a line one of our leaders reiterated clung to me – and has subsequently helped me to propel myself out of my comfort zone and into more tenuous [...]

eBay and Google kind of make up – sort of
Nearly 2 weeks ago, I relayed the story of eBay & Google’s corporate cat fight. Well, eBay has decided resume their advertising on Google, but they will be relying on alternative advertising services to a greater degree. This is good news for Yahoo and Microsoft and [...]

Every once in a while, a corporate cat fight in the tech world breaks out that demands my attention. Recently, eBay pulled all of its advertising from Google’s U.S. network. Apparently, Google crashed eBay’s user conference, eBay Live, and went about hawking its online payment service, Google Checkout. They’ve also been lobbying eBay to start [...]

Yesterday, Google Maps introduced Street View Maps for 5 major cities (alas, Seattle wasn’t one of them). The implementation of the Street View feature rocks even though the image quality isn’t as good as it could be. Jim and Galen have already blogged about Google’s new release, so I’ll avoid repeating what they’ve already said.
What [...]

First Zillow releases a new version of their web site.
Then Microsoft releases a new Virtual Earth (VE 3D in Firefox).
Then the a new Beta of Realtor.com is released.
Galen releases new ShackPrices features.
Ardell is using her Verizon EVDO card in Vegas, probably while playing the slots and sipping drinks with umbrellas in them.
Then I discover, Redfin [...]

Every once in a while a realtor or broker from out of state will ask me to develop an IDX web site for them. Unfortunately, supporting a new MLS is very similar to supporting a foreign language. It is a large software engineering task that takes a lot of time, and since I don’t already have the [...]

Randy (husband) and I are buying a new home in Issaquah Highlands, a neighborhood I really love. Won’t we be neighbors, Robbie?  Reminds me of Queen Anne with the local community feel.  It was supposed to be the new home for Microsoft, but the company decided to stay in Redmond although Issaquah Highlands is home to many [...]

Before Reba posted her article on the upcoming House Values layoffs, I recently ran across an interesting article about HouseValues on MSN Investor. It was basically a press release from Zacks Investment Research that stated HouseValues (SOLD) made their list of the top 5 stocks to sell now. Needless to say, this is not a glowing recommendation.
Also during that [...]