Friday Flash: Realtor.com goes "Hypersocial," real estate television and the plight of the earpiece

Realtor.com released its new suite of “Hypersocial” tools nationwide this week, bringing to fruition its acquisition of SocialBios last summer.

Agents can now collect and promote testimonials gathered on Facebook through both their social connections and on their Realtor.com profile page. The core of the original SocialBios application – mashing up the social graphs of a consumer and an agent to surface commonalities – is also active.

One of Realtor.com’s frequently overlooked assets is its accurate list of every Realtor in America (ok, I know, you can just buy one yourself). Now that list has been enlivened with a bit of social interaction.

Smart move.

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Online brokerage Estately went after a “terrestrial” broker in Canada for ripping off its front-end code and interface. Looks like they had a legit claim.

But this dust up reminded me just how much combustible material surrounds companies like Estately that have brokerage licenses in multiple states, significant traffic and access to IDX, but refer the vast majority of their leads off to agents hanging their license with other brokers for a fee.

They exist largely under the radar, given cover by looming DOJ demons, while companies like Redfin, Realtor.com and Zillow take darts from many in the industry.

Don’t strike a match!

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So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

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Google filled in some details on its magic glasses project.

In the mid-nineties, a friend told me how we’d soon wear cell phones on our ears. It sounded preposterous.

Today, the Bluetooth earpiece, having moved from cutting edge to gauche, is clung to only by men of a certain age and those with mullets.

So I’m taking this glasses thing seriously. And expect it will come, go, and be replaced by something still more magical.

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Check out this new dating app. Once video messaging becomes widespread over 3G/4G, I’m betting we’ll see a video listing presentation app where consumers push the process of selecting an agent out of the living room.

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Redfin updated its iPhone and iPad apps to make something like “real estate search TV” possible.

They’ve hooked the apps into Apple’s Airplay API, which makes it possible for those with Apple TVs to throw the search experience on a TV screen wirelessly while controlling it from the iPhone or iPad.

Right now, this benefits a small, geeky crowd. But given all the talk about what’s next for TV, it seems like a wise move.

I believe Redfin’s are the only real estate iOS apps that have this capability, but please let me know in the comments if I have that wrong.

Enjoy the weekend.

[Disclosure: Move, Inc., which operates Realtor.com, is a 1000WATT client]