Keyhole Corporation, developer of the EarthSystem online imagery service, today announced that it has won a major deployment contract of Keyhole's EarthViewer in the residential real estate market.
The 30,000 realtor member Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois, Inc., (MLSNI), one of the largest MLS's in the world, has selected Keyhole as its provider of aerial imagery and real estate specific data. When member realtors query property listings, they will be able to use the Keyhole's EarthViewer HTML integrated into MLSNI's member web listing services to pilot to an aerial image of that address. The realtor can then activate and interact with various data layers, such as schools, grocery stores, movie rental locations, roads, and other available properties, to instantly get a "birds-eye" view of a neighborhood.
"The combination of the aerial imagery, with numerous data overlays, was one of the two compelling reasons that we picked Keyhole," said MLSNI CEO Jay Huffman "We think our member realtors will gain context by seeing an aerial image with points of interest."
The second component of the contract centers around Keyhole's EarthViewer3D - the groundbreaking broadband application designed to let users fluidly fly over 3D aerial imagery anywhere in the world, zooming, panning, and tilting the perspective like a helicopter ride. Users can also interactively explore school districts, look for neighborhoods based on their proximity to restaurants and shopping, view crime information by county, all in a imagery-based 3D model that puts the world at the fingertips of MLSNI users. MLSNI member realtorS will be able to purchase a special MLSNI version of Keyhole's EarthViewer3D, populated with current property listings available from MLSNI. A realtor with Keyhole's EarthViewer3D for MLSNI installed on their PC will be able to fly over a Chicago suburb, for instance, pan to a particular neighborhood, activate available properties, and see the city "light-up" with homes for sale. Further piloting down to a specific property, the realtor will be able to access the full property record from the MLSNI property listings database.
"Keyhole's EarthViewer3D has won acclaim for its breathtaking 3D performance and unmatched imagery database," says Keyhole CEO John V. Hanke. "By combining this game-like functionality and massive imagery database with the MLSNI property data, we've created a whole new class of real estate technology tool."
"You have to see Keyhole's EarthViewer3D to believe it," says Jay Huffman of the MLSNI. "I think that this is how realtorS will want to research and present properties in the future, and that is the second compelling reason we decided to work with Keyhole."