By: Chris Brubaker

Wifi, WiMax, Bluetooth, GSM, our world is becoming ever increasingly wireless. At the end of 2007, experts estimated there were 3 Billion people with mobile phones, and predicted by 2009 that number would reach 4 Billion. Being wireless and having access to information on the go is becoming easier and more essential than ever.

One growing sector of wireless is mobile search, quickly becoming an important tool. Nielsen reports that in the third quarter of 2007 the US had 46 million people using search functionality on their mobile phone. The two most popular search methods include voice (dialing 411) closely followed by SMS (text message searching).

With 80% of consumers starting their home search online, it is important to note that homebuyers are also engaging offline. 100% of consumers go out into their market at some point to look at individual homes or particular neighborhoods. Getting in front of consumers who are out and about is invaluable. Mobile search offers real estate professionals the means to stay top of mind with consumers while they are out house hunting.

HouseFront has been offering consumers one of the only mobile real estate search services via text message (text any address to ‘HOUSE’ or 46873) since early 2007. By the end of that year, HouseAds was launched, offering real estate professionals access to mobile advertising and the ability to get in front of consumers via mobile real estate search. For more information on this growing market segment check out HouseAds.

Denver Real Estate

By: Chris Brubaker

 
In this two part series, I’m going to talk about two key problems in the SMS (text messaging) industry affecting growth and innovation; spam and shady business practices.

Spam
Let’s first start out with some numbers. In 2006, 800 million spam text messages were sent, in 2007 that number increased to 1.1 [...]