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Zillow, the real-estate website and app that got its start by uncovering hidden details about homes for sale, is taking a stylish turn.
In its seven-year existence, Zillow has expanded into home financing and rental properties. And now it is dipping a toe into home decorating and design, forcing itself to swim in waters it doesn’t know well. Meet Zillow Digs.
For the past week, I tested Digs, the company’s free iPad app and website (Zillow.com/Digs) which is available starting Tuesday.
Digs continues Zillow’s exposé philosophy. Just as Zillow originally revealed home prices and other real-estate information, Digs is showing photos of beautiful rooms and providing Digs Estimates of kitchens and bathrooms that tell people how much it might cost them to do the same remodel in their homes.
Digs Estimates give the cost of a remodeled kitchen or bath.
The idea is a good one, as most people are curious about the cost of renovations. Each Digs Estimate includes specific breakdowns of labor costs (such as demolition, backsplash and cabinet installation) and materials (such as countertops and appliances). These estimates are made by economists and data analysts at Zillow using an algorithm with real-world data from contractors, such as finish levels and material rates. They don’t include structural or utility work, permits or taxes, but they do factor in a regional adjustment according to where you live and how much that might add to the overall price.
Zillow Digs will improve as it goes, but this first version pales in comparison with Houzz, the website and app leader in this space.
Houzz has well over a million images of rooms and spaces compared with the 20,000 images on Digs. Certain items in Houzz images are labeled with tags that show how much an item costs, though Houzz doesn’t offer a feature like Digs Estimates. Along with its images, Houzz offers design and redecorating advice from nearly 170,000 professionals, including architects, interior designers, landscape architects, general contractors and home stagers.
People can also browse Houzz’s Professionals section to see sample work and sort these pros by location and service to find someone they may want to hire. Digs seems to be adding professionals as an afterthought on its app, tagging some (but not all) photos with names of pros. The Digs website does better with a Find a Pro tab at the top of its website, but Digs currently has fewer than 19,000 professionals associated with it.
Not surprisingly, Zillow tries to lure users back to its real bread and butter: Selling homes. Many of the images that didn’t include Digs Estimates did offer Home Info, a tab that displayed the house’s address, estimated valuation, number of beds and baths and additional images. If the house was for sale, I clicked on an “Open in Zillow” link to see the listing page for the home, which included the usual Zillow details such as a map of the house’s location, estimated mortgage and square footage.
Zillow Digs allows users to sort images by space, style and cost.
The thing is, I don’t search for homes by starting with room designs. Like most people, I search for houses that have the right number of beds and baths and fall within my ideal location and budget.
I saved favorite Digs images to virtual Boards by tapping a heart on each photo, adding comments to some. Boards can be named, edited and shared with friends via email, Facebook or Twitter.
But the boards and the comments you make on any image can’t be made private, which is frustrating. Houzz enables privacy for both comments and its version of Boards, called Ideabooks. A spokeswoman for Zillow said private Boards will be available in spring or summer.
Since I tested Zillow Digs in its pre-release edition, it was hard to gauge community involvement. When I saw a design I liked and found a person’s name associated with that photo, I could tap the name to find out more about the person — in some cases it was a design professional — and “follow” him or her on Zillow Digs. Digs can also be linked to your Facebook account, to find friends who use it, though I couldn’t test this aspect because Digs wasn’t yet released.
The Houzz community is involved, vocal and smart about design. A popular Discussions section lets people add polls or ask questions, and in most cases, the community helps out with these inquiries.
Zillow Digs has a helpful feature called Similar Images, which saved me from scouring the app or website for rooms in similar styles. (Houzz has a similar offering.) Another useful feature was a filter that narrows photos by space, style and cost. You can also search specific terms, such as “marble.”
If you’re used to Houzz, you’ll know that Zillow Digs doesn’t come close to its quality and detail. But for people who are curious about the costs associated with remodeling kitchens and bathrooms, Zillow Digs can be eye-opening. If the community embraces it like it has Houzz, the experience will only improve.
Email Katie at katie.boehret@wsj.com.
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Samsung is bringing its Ativ Smart PC to AT&T beginning November 9th. Despite its tablet form factor, Samsung is touting the Ativ Smart PC as a full-fledged Windows 8 device — which is also reflected by its $ 799 price point. That’s costlier than what we’ve seen from Windows RT-based hardware announced in recent weeks but you’ll also get backward compatibility with a comprehensive list of Windows software both new and old. The Ativ Smart PC features an 11.6-inch display, 64GB of internal storage (expandable up to 96GB when you factor in the microSD slot) and a 1.5GHz Intel Atom chipset. Sadly AT&T isn’t revealing if it plans to carry the Ativ Smart PC Pro, a decidedly more capable option thanks to its faster processor and 1080p display.
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Question by complete idiot: What is the cost of an OLED?
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Answer by Justin WDepends on the size of the display.
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Note: This is only the portion for Iron Man’s suit, hit the jump for the entire graphic.
Hot on the heels of last week’s cost of being Batman infographic comes this one for Iron Man. The total (entirely guesstimated) cost of being Iron Man? $ 1,612,717,000. Of course, just like in the Batman version, they failed to consider the REAL cost of being Iron Man: all the expensive booze and beautiful women and fast cars and tropical vacations and…man, f*** that guy.
Hit the jump and start arguing how grossly inaccurate all the numbers are.
Google must be feeling the pinch from developers like Foursquare who’ve jumped ship from Google Maps in opposition to costs, as it just cut the price of heavy Maps API use in a big, big way. Where it used to cost $ 4 for every 1,000 map hits beyond a 25,000 daily limit, the company is now charging as little as $ 1 in addition to eliminating the lower usage cap for app writers who tweak the map look. The olive branch won’t make Apple change its mind, of course, but Google clearly isn’t keen on anyone else using the price tag as an incentive to join the exodus. Mountain View is no doubt eager to keep as many mobile and web app developers on its side as it can — with Google I/O just around the corner, it wouldn’t do to have customers leaving at the very moment Google is trying to rally support for a big Maps update.
Google drops cost of Maps API to keep developers, gives Foursquare puppy eyes originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Jun 2012 15:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Microsoft revealed Windows Phone Tango at MWC 2012 as a version of the operating system for low-cost devices with 256MB of RAM. The update was good news for owners of early Windows Phone devices that didn’t meet the minimum requirements for Mango, but there have been a few hiccups. Microsoft said that not all apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace would work on devices with only 256MB of memory, and there have since been issues with Angry Birds and Skype, just to name a couple.
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Question by : How much will the xbox 4g w/ Kinect cost for black friday? Which would be the best store to go to?
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Answer by I like TurtlesWalmart is offering it for $ 299 with 3 Kinect Games! (4gb console, Kinect, and 3 games) Check out http://tgiblackfridays.com/
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Related Posts:Question by Connor: How much does the first generation ipad cost? Now that the ipad 2 is out, what is the cost of the first generation be?
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Answer by Bryan RubinHola,
Refurbished iPad with Wi-Fi 16GB (first generation) Originally Released April 2010 16GB flash drive capacity Wi-Fi $ 349.00 Save $ 50.00 12% off
Refurbished iPad with Wi-Fi 32GB (first generation)
32GB flash drive capacity Wi-Fi Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology $ 429.00
Refurbished iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G 16GB (first generation) 16GB flash drive capacity Wi-Fi + 3G (3G data plan sold separately) $ 479.00
Refurbished iPad with Wi-Fi 64GB (first generation) 64GB flash drive capacity Wi-Fi $ 529.00 Save $ 70.00
Refurbished iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G 32GB (first generation) 32GB flash drive capacity Wi-Fi + 3G (3G data plan sold separately) $ 559.00
Refurbished iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G 64GB (first generation) 64GB flash drive capacity Wi-Fi + 3G (3G data plan sold separately) $ 659.00
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Related Posts:Question by : How much does it cost to install a webcam on an ipad first generation? I have an iPad instead of a computer and i want to be able to Skype with my family. My iPad doesn’t have a webcam. How much does it cost to have a webcam installed in my iPad(and would Skype work with it)?
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Answer by Sandwhich BaloneySorry to say you can’t do that. Apple products are completely factory sealed (if you’ve noticed they don’t have any screws or anything). So the only way to open them is to pry them open by force which will a) void your warranty and b) most likely severely damage internal components (such as processor, hard drive, etc.). I recommend buying a Bluetooth webcam which you can wirelessly connect to your iPad.
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Related Posts:Question by : How much does an xbox 360 slim kinect modded cost in Malaysia? and also where to buy it (in Malaysia of course)?.cheap prices if possible. Feedback will be appreciated.
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Answer by Chloe£30000000,000,000…… I don’t know im not from Malaysia, and why dont you google it?
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