A little while ago, we introduced a new feature that made it very easy for your web visitors to signup and login into their Virtual Office Website (VOW) accounts using their Facebook profiles. Shortly after, we added support for Google/Gmail accounts and Yahoo ID. Today, we are very pleased to announce the support for Facebook, Google/Gmail and Yahoo ID in your mobile listings with myRealPage. It’s fairly obvious that any shortcut on a mobile device that reduces the amount of typing is of great value to your clients and leads. They will now be able to create a VOW account on your mobile listings by typing absolutely nothing and potentially only needing to click on a single checkbox that they agree to the “Terms and Conditions”; if you have any, that is.

Also remember, that this feature is available to you even if you are subscribed to Listings-Only service.

Make sure you enable your Facebook, Google and Yahoo ID logins in your Private Office; it’s easy:

Do you have ideas or suggestions for our products or would like to give us your feedback? We are all ears! Leave your comments here or send them to us to feedback@myrealpage.com

We have published a few new features and updates that we wanted you to know about. We have posted full releases on our tech blog. Here are quick links for you:

• Welcome a new myRealPage weblet: Mortgage Calculator; mobile version included
• Let web visitors with Google/Gmail accounts quickly signup and login into your Virtual Office Website (VOW)
• Customize your Image Banner Weblet to display page-specific images and transitions

Let us know what you think! Leave your comments here or send us feedback to feedback@myrealpage.com

You have asked for it, and now we are very excited to say “HERE IT IS!”: our full support for mobile websites as part of our Content Management System (CMS).

In case you haven’t heard: mobile is a very rapidly growing part of today’s web. It’s the new battlefield for the hearts and minds of the users; and even though it has been the focus of prediction-happy experts for a while; there is no mistake that it’s truly ramping up now.

A little while ago we gave you mobile listing search, QR codes, and iPad support. Today, we are giving you tools to create a robust, branded, unique mobile presence for your real estate practice and offer your clients and leads a wealth of mobile real estate tools.

If you have already used our regular website editor, using it to author your mobile website is going to feel very natural to you. The mobile websites are based on exactly the same principle as our regular websites: pages composed of weblets: little component-like building blocks. But we have gone an extra mile: we made existing weblets behave nicely when they are part of a mobile website and we have created a series of new weblets, specifically for the mobile.

Here are a few features and highlights of our new mobile solution:

• Fully integrated WISYWIG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) page editor suitable for mobile websites (see the screenshot on the right >>>)
• Mobile weblets, such as “Mobile Toolbar”, “Mobile Banner”, “Mobile Content Section”, and others specifically designed with a look and feel and simplicity suitable for mobile use
• Fully integrated Listings views, as well as location-aware Listing Search (IDX) and Predefined Searches (in regions where available); including Featured Listing support and Customizable Quick Search Form
• Mobile friendly form support, including customizable standard forms and fully custom forms built from scratch 
• Mobile friendly “Testimonials”, “Awards”, “Reports”, “Snippets”, and other list-based weblets
• Full support for mobile friendly blog with proper image sizing; as well as auto-sizing and payback for embedded YouTube video
• Full support of the Virtual Office Website (VOW) for your leads and clients, including the display of their Saved Searches, Favorites and recent Email Alerts
• Intelligent mobile redirect system to allow you to automatically direct the user to the mobile version of your website, including page-aware redirects. For example, if someone clicks on your specific page link, listing link or a blog post link; and those pages exist on your mobile website; the user will be taken directly to that content, not just your home page
• Full CSS styling support for those who want to go the extra mile
• Mobile websites have no set-up fees and are only $30 per month each: ADD ONE NOW AND GET IT FOR FREE FOR 30 DAYS!

We are very excited about this product release. We hope you will be too. Let us know what you think: we are all ears! Leave your comments here or drop us a line to feedback@myrealpage.com

UPDATE: Videos demonstrating how to create and build mobile websites:

Create and kick off your first mobile website

Create and add content to a brand new page on your mobile website

Set up mobile redirect rules for your regular website

Editing mobile websites: “Beyond the Basics”

Below are some images taken from our mobile screens and our authoring environment.

Click on the images to see their non-scaled versions:

Brand new blank page as seen in your mobile website editor:

Create one or more mobile websites through a very easy 2-step wizard:

Set up mobile rules for your main website with ease:

A “Mobile Banner” weblet example: built with mobile in mind:

We are very pleased to release an update to myRealPage Mobile Search which, among other things, includes support for the new device on the block: Apple’s® iPad™. The updated mobile search now sports:

• more polished user interface, with pin icons for better visibility, including number of listings on each pin
• list view of the found listings for better browsing
• criteria form that allows setting basic restrictions, such as price, property types, bedrooms, etc.
• better Virtual Office Website integration for regions that have VOW but don’t offer Reciprocity
• better integration with custom mobile websites, including customizable CSS and mobile icon
• support for iPad™

Now, if someone comes to your website via an iPad™ and navigates to the Google Map Search form, our system will automatically recognize that and, instead of showing the interactive Google Map Search, it will show a link to the iPad™-optimized IDX to give your visitor a better search experience. Your visitors can still continue to use traditional non Google Map forms to search for listings, if they wish.

If you would like to see this new update, simply navigate to: [yourdomain.com]/m or [yourdomain.com/ipad

We have gone to great lengths to make the user experience of viewing your listings on the iPad™ as enjoyable as possible: we have eliminated, where possible, references to Flash and made the listing page size fit best the iPad™ screen resolution. This product is still very much a “work in progress” but we are very pleased with the way it’s shaping out. 

The best way, of course, to experience how this product works on iPad™ is to try it yourself; if you don’t own one, why not try it at your local electronics retailer: simply enter your [yourdomain.com]/m URL into Safari and see what happens!

Do you have feedback for us? We want to hear your thoughts: leave your comments here or drop us a line to support@myrealpage.com

If you are wondering what a QR code is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code), don’t worry! QR codes are just a variety of barcodes, the kinds you find on things you buy; except they are especially easy to scan for smart phones. Almost any modern smart phone can have a Barcode Scanner application installed and capable of scanning the codes using the built-in phone camera. What’s interesting is that QR codes can make the smart phone do a bunch of interesting and useful things. For example, they can make the phone navigate to a web page, or they can automatically create a contact record and let the user save it; or create a calendar event. Now if you start thinking about it: QR codes provide an ideal connection between your printed materials and your leads equipped with smart phones: be it a property “FOR SALE” sign, or your business card, or a flyer. QR codes can even be scanned directly from a computer screen!

Here is a hypothetical scenario: imagine that someone is walking by your freshly planted “FOR SALE” sign for a property you have just listed. She notices the QR code with “SCAN THIS FOR LISTING DETAILS” caption nicely attached to the sign. Being a hip mobile savvy user, she pulls out her iPhone and scans the code; and within a few seconds she is looking at the full details web page of your listing, complete with all the photos, contact info, etc. She also notices your phone number and next to it another QR code that says: “SCAN THIS FOR MY CONTACT DETAILS”. She does just that and instantly sees the QR reader create a contact record with your details and ask her whether she wants to add it to her Contacts. All this has happened without your lead typing a single character into her phone.

Think about the possibilities now. You can print a QR code at the back of your business card, on your listing materials, anywhere where you can save your leads some typing and instantly increase your mobile coolness factor!

MyRealPage now gives you a way to create QR codes for each of your listings, as well as for your Contact Information. Just download the resulting image and incorporate it into any printed material or signage as you see fit.

Here is quick sketch of what happens when you scan a QR code that takes you to a web page (URL):

And a quick sketch of what happens when your Contact Details are scanned:

You can find your Listing QR code by simply clicking on the “More…” tab in your Listing editor in the Private Office:

And you can find your Contact Info QR codes in the Listing Options under the “Listings” tab in your Private Office:

Do you have comments or suggestions? Do you know of a creative idea to use a QR code? Let us know!

-- Brought to you by MyRealPage.com

• Automatically locate yourself via GPS and see all available listings for sale in up to 1km radius around you
• Have the application "follow" you by updating your position and nearby listings as you walk or drive
• Drag the map to pan around and see the nearby listings automatically searched for you
• Manually override your current location by entering the address of your choice
• Login into your Virtual Office Website (VOW) account to see and do more
• See full details of each individual listing, including all photos
• Email listings to family and friends
• Inquire about the listing with the agent/team/broker
• "Star" the listing for later review through the Virtual Office Website (VOW) account
• Sign up for a Virtual Office Website (VOW) account
• Make a phone call and/or send a SMS message directly from the contact forms

-- Brought to you by MyRealPage.com