Who searches for houses to rent or buy without using the web these days? Searching for properties in the UK reveals lots of good, bad and ugly sites that range from being almost revolutionary to extremely frustrating.

Starting with the revolutionary: The difference between using On One Map and other property sites is like the difference between using the local paper and the web. It turns house hunting on its head and allows the user to concentrate on the location first and details second.

The IPO of Rightmove (RMV) generated a lot of buzz here in the UK and their site is usable without being breathtaking.

For tracking prices the UK has nothing as sophisticated as Zillow but sites such as Hometrack and My House Price are still useful. Business week did a podcast recently titled Buyer and Seller Beware on house prices in the US. It is surprisingly entertaining for a subject that sounds slightly dull (if you live in the UK at least).

Developers seem to be fond of Flash and animations when it comes to websites, often with mixed results. The worst site we came across was one such site: The truly horrible Greenwich millenium village.

Finally, if you want an excuse to bail out, check out Housepricecrash.co.uk.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 30th, 2006 at 9:37 am and is filed under Technology, Web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.