HotPads.com is an map-based rental housing and real estate search engine. Launched in November 2005, the site allows users to search for housing using a graphical map. Listings are displayed at their addresses, allowing users to conduct a location-based search. Through the graphical interface, users click on individual property listings depicted by animated building icons. Whereas many websites are mash-ups

Mashup (web application hybrid)

In Web development, a mashup is a Web page or application that uses and combines data, presentation or functionality from two or more sources to create new services...

 of other mapping applications, like Google Maps

Google Maps

Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...

, HotPads uses its own original mapping application.

Background

HotPads was founded in 2005 by Matt Corgan, Douglas Pope, and John Fitzpatrick. The site currently lists 4 million for-sale properties and 400,000 rental properties, with its most densely listed areas being New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and Washington DC. Based on information from 2006, HotPads operates with a staff of 10 people out of Washington, DC. The company’s business model is based on advertisements and listing enhancements.

Other features

Other features include heat maps (help visualize data like foreclosure rates, household incomes, age distributions, and population densities), free syndication of listings (listings created on HotPads are distributed to over 15 partner sites), analytics dashboard where users track interaction with their listings, interactive school attendance zone maps, a buy vs. rent calculator, real estate question and answer community, hand drawn "lasso" search (which allows users to draw a lasso around specific areas on the map), and a blog called HotPads Daily.

External links

• HotPads.com
• Tech Journal South: "DC's HotPads pockets $2.3 million A round"
• Washington Post: "Start-up"
• New York Times: "Mapping Done Right"
• "All HotPads Press"