Trulia, Stamen team up for more eye candy for house hunters
New tool shows off little clusters of homes all over a 2D map, offering an alternative view of the Trulia real estate listings.
Real estate search and resource service Trulia has a new tool built by the guys at Stamen Design called Snapshot. It's built off of Microsoft Virtual Earth and shows off little clusters of homes all over a 2D map. It's been pitched as an "alternate" view of the Trulia real estate listings, but a better way to describe it is pure, unadulterated eye candy.
That's not to say it's without use though. You can sort out houses in your area by price tag, or simply when they were listed. Each house has a little photo thumbnail, and you can click on any item to take you right to its Trulia page. You can also just sit back and watch the tool scroll through houses automatically, which pop up and give you bits of information.
While I don't think this system will ever replace an advanced search that can narrow down homes you're looking for by how many bathrooms and closets each house has, Snapshot is a great way to re-create the feeling of exploration you can get by driving around neighborhoods and looking at what's for sale.
Stamen Design's previous project with Trulia was HindSight, a tool that shows you what's happened to certain areas of the world historically. While neat to look at, unless you lived in one of the places that was coded in, it wasn't very useful. This new tool is far better for people who want to use their eyes to look for a new place to live.
