Zillow.com^[1], the website that offers valuations on real estate and provides information regarding homes for sale announced today on their blog^[2] that they have launched several new features.  The three new features includes a customized homepage, discussions pages, and 6500+ new Neighborhood Pages with intentions to adding many more.

The Neighborhood Pages include demographic information of people that live in the featured neighborhoods.  In these pages, users are also encouraged to talk about local news, add events such as garage sales, and share photos of neighborhoods. 

Another new feature is the Discussions pages, general interactions about real estate is encouraged.  Discussions are sorted by groups.  The Zillow blog mentions that if one is interested in advice for financing a home is under the “Buying a Home” and if one is a real estate agent, one is encouraged to interact in the “Real Estate Professionals” category.

And the last new feature announced today is the customized home page.  The Zillow home page displays a user’s Q&A activity, displays homes posted for sale based on user-chosen criteria along with other houses in the neighborhood, etc.  VC Ratings has some commentary on the financial correlation between the new features and Zillow’s funding as well at: http://vcratings.thedealblogs.com/2007/07/zillow_launches_social_network.php^[3]

[1] Zillow.com
[2] Zillow Blog: New Today: Welcome to the Neighborhood!
[3] VC Ratings: Zillow launches social networking features to catch up to Trulia