Another business idea...

One of the next Web 2.0 services should add a social component (a la Amazon's recommendation engine) to the wealth of information stored in the Multiple Listings Service.  My wife and I have moved several times over the past 10 years, and one of our biggest problems is finding the best neighborhoods and towns to live, when you already have a job, or finding the best place for jobs when you already know where you want to live. 

 

Basically, such a site would allow a user to define a very lose set of criteria for their destination (say...upper northeast, southwest US, downtown Atlanta, younger-families, good public schools, high safety, etc) and from that a recommendation engine would cross-index all of the relevant results matching the user's destination criteria.  This site would remove the mystery inherent in finding a new home in a neighborhood across the country.  Another function could allow the user to specify an address in one town, and look for similar neighborhoods and towns across the country or another region of the country. 

 

There is no real substitute for actually visiting a place and getting to see the sights, meet the folks and learn your way around.  On the other hand, the Internet can go much further in helping people narrow down a boggling variety of towns and neighborhoods, and open up more little-known places to live.

 

 - Bryan