Nestoria
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nestoria | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Type | Private |
| Founded | April 2006 |
| Headquarters |  Holborn, London, UK |
| Key people | Javier Etxebeste (co-founder), Ed Freyfogle (co-founder) |
| Industry | Real estate |
| Parent | Lokku Ltd. |
| Slogan | "The easiest way to find UK property" |
| Website | nestoria.co.uk nestoria.es |
| Type of site | Search engine |
| Available in | English, Spanish |
| Launched | June 2006 |
| Current status | Active |
Nestoria is a vertical search engine for real estate. In terms of reach, Nestoria is the 8th largest property web site in the UK and the 10th in Spain (comScore, March 2008 [1]).
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Nestoria aggregates property listings from property portals and provides a location-based search to Internet users. Results can be sorted by relevance, freshness, location and type of property.
[edit] Company
Javier Etxebeste and Ed Freyfogle, two former Yahoo! executives, founded Lokku Limited in April 2006. Lokku is based in Holborn, London, UK. Lokku is equity backed by private investors from UK and Spain. The first website brand Nestoria UK launched in June 2006, the Spanish website Nestoria España in May 2007 [2].
[edit] Website
Nestoria is a case study of Google Maps API use[3] and of Yahoo User Interface implementation [4]. As a web application hybrid or mashup, Nestoria geo-locates properties on maps and combines them with Point of Interest of transport, schools, hospitals and other local information relevant to homes seekers.
As a typical Web 2.0 operation, Nestoria co-operates with collaborative projects such as OpenStreetMap (open source mapping) or Geograph British Isles (photographs). It shares its property data via a web service with webmasters or through co-branded property search such as The Independent (newspaper) and Channel4 Homes (TV-station). Other Web 2.0 feature include widgets and a Facebook application.
[edit] Criticism
As with other search engines, Nestoria's search index is as updated and accurate as the data obtained from property portals and website, which in turn are fed from estate agents. The quality of the search results (e.g. if the house is still on the market or already sold) strongly depends on the motivation of local estate agents to upload accurate information and to update them regularly.
In Spain, the real estate market is based on non-exclusive contracts between property sellers and estate agents. Estate agents try not to disclose the precise location of the homes on the Internet. This prevents Nestoria from geocoding many properties accurately on a map.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Nestoria blog - official company blog
- Interview with the founder - The Guardian newspaper, Jan 2008
- podcast interview - Nubricks.com, Sep 2007
- company reviewed - AltSearchEngines.com, Sep 2007
- mashup case study - ProgrammableWeb, Sep 2007
