Map-based Search is Now Available Nationwide

We have just released the RealBird Map-based Property Search covering the whole United States. This service uses data from Google Base and is completely private labeled for you. It is a new user interface view for our almost one year old RealBird Property Search service and adds a new option for providing a lightning fast property search experience for your website and blog visitors.

Just like with the previous versions of the RealBird Property Search (full screen tabular and sidebar widget option) you can create unlimited, preset search engines that target not only your market but other niche audience as well. (E.g. you can set up searches for REOs, ocean view luxury properties, equestrian ranches you name it)

Before the brief tutorial, see two live RealBird Map-based Search widgets below:

Ocean view homes and condos for sale in Miami Beach (courtesy of Janie Coffey)

The example above is preconfigured for Miami Beach and filtered with the "ocean view" keyword search.

San Francisco South of Market Lofts for Sale, all property types (Courtesy of Joe Parsons)

This example centers on South of Market in San Francisco and uses the keyword search "loft" for full text search filtering.

The two examples show how to create niche map search widgets so that you can embed relevant results in your blog posts. Of course, you can create more general searches if that is what you need for your application.

We are going to write more tutorials on the RealBird wiki on how to best utilize the RealBird Property Search. In the meantime, see the main functionalities below:

Create map-based searches for any map extent and zoom level with any search criteria pre-configured

As shown above, you can set up unlimited, preset, general or niche searches with your service. The steps area easy: log in to RealBird and go to the Property Search section. The system provides you with a default map search. Then use the "Search" and "Location" modules on the bottom right on the map itself to configure your search. Pan and zoom as needed. Once you are done, click the blue "HTML" icon, again on the bottom right on the map and copy the embed code from the pop-up.

Share your searches on social networks

You and your visitors can easily share a search on social networks and social bookmarking sites. At any time during the home search process, one can click on the "+" sign at the bottom right on the map and the current search (criteria and map extent) can be shared with a few clicks. It's a good practice to share your niche searches on Twitter, Facebook and other major networks to create some initial buzz.

How to embed it into your ActiveRain and Localism post

The embed code can be easily added to your website and blogs. Furthermore, the width of default code is set to 100% so you can post it on ActiveRain and it will automatically adjust the width for Localism and your outside blog as well, without any modification. Of course, you can always override the width and height of the widget. If you want to provide a full screen map, you can use the "green arrow" icon at the bottom right of the map to generate a permalink to the current map extent and search criteria and use that link as a regular Url in your blog post or in your website. Because the embed code is a regular iframe HTML snippet, you can use it on most blogs and websites including Posterous, Typepad, Blogger etc.

How to get the RealBird Map-based Property Search

The map-based search widget is available for RealBird PRO members. For only $99/year, it is one of the most affordable private-labeled search engine out there. Make sure to log into RealBird to see our current special. For existing RealBird PRO members, this is a free upgrade.

Existing RealBird Pro members:

1. Log in to RealBird 
2. Go to the "Property Search" section
3. The default page here is preset with the map-based search widget centering to your zipcode
4. Pan and zoom in or out or use the Location button to jump to the proper location
5. Use the Search button to set and submit search criteria if needed
6. Finally, use the blue button that reads "HTML" at the bottom right on the map and copy the widget code from the popup box
7. Paste this code in HTML view into ActiveRain or any other website or blog

RealBird free members and new registration

1. Log in to RealBird or create a free RealBird account
2. Go to the "Property Search" section
3. The default page here is preset with the map-based search widget centering to your zipcode
4. We provide you with a demo so that you can try your own map-search, set location and search criteria and preview matches.
5. The free RealBird service shows a "This is a demo..." message when trying to click-through to the property details, but you can see all the other search functionalities otherwise
6. Check out the top right area of the sidebar in the member area for our current promotional price. Follow the "Upgrade" link there to upgrade your service to RealBird PRO instantly

We hope you find this new RealBird service as amazing as we do. We worked a lot on it :) Should you have feedback or questions please do not hesitate to comment, call or email us. We are here to help.

Enjoy !

-- Zoltan 
RealBird.com