Behold, the mobile Web

The question has sparked a million debates:

Mobile Web or native?

I’m not going to enter the fray, but I do want to point out something I’ve noticed over the past couple months in our little corner of the digital world:

The best mobile web experiences in real estate have gotten a lot better.

You may not have picked up on this, because Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com try hard to steer you to their native apps when you hit their sites on a mobile browser. But click through the splash page and you’ll see that these companies are hedging their native bet a little more aggressively these days.

Here’s a quick look:

Trulia

The is so well done. It’s beautiful, clean and the interaction design is great. Except for the occasional hiccup, you almost forget you’re on the web.

Realtor.com

RDC nails what is arguably most important: speed. The site just doesn’t hang. School data is integrated elegantly, and this is the only site to include a “draw your search” feature, which works really well.

Zillow

This is the utilitarian choice. It functions great, and gives you easy access to Zillow’s other marketplaces (i.e., mortgages, home design), but doesn’t deliver grabbing visuals.

What’s best for you?

That’s the truly important question. And unless you have the budget to do both Web and native well, it’s one you will have to answer. We wrestle with it all the time for clients, weighing pros and cons, risk and rewards.

Either way, it’s good to look at what’s out there on the leading edge.