Wetpaint is a new wiki platform that just came out of Beta. I remember reading the hype about it in March and also reading the follow up post on Threadwatch a few days later entitled “WetPaint new on Friday, Old by Sunday”. I signed up to be a beta tester and got an invite, but after a careful review, I gave it a big thumbs down.

The company has secured an impressive 5M in funding, but I just don’t see where that money is going - maybe 3 SuperBowl ads in 2007? The biggest problems: interface and motivation.

I’ll give the service an honorable mention for trying to create a slick ajax interface, but the end result is quite clunky and not very intuitive. If they are trying to bring the wiki to the masses, it won’t be able to do it with what it has. Seems like a product of “engineering trees, not the forest”.

Second is the motivation factor, which I think is the reason this company might fail. Squidoo has been criticized for this same reason, but at least it has Seth behind it AND it offers some kind of revenue share (even if it is laughable). If I am going to spend my time creating a wiki and putting in the hours, what will I get in return? To quote my conversation with Pete Cashmore of Mashable, “What’s the motivation factor?”. Any web2.0 company that’s trying to make it through the breaks needs to answer this question on behalf of its users, “What’s in it for me?”. Whether that’s “I’ll save time” (Digg), “I’ll be organized” (Digg again), “I’ll make money” (Blogger/Adsense), or “I’ll get recognition and exposure” (Wikipedia). Wetpaint? None of the above.

Wow. This is hitting the internet by storm: a ringtone that’s played at a high frequency (17khz) that older people can’t hear. You can download the free mosquito ringtone here and see if you can hear it. The technology was first discovered and used as a teenager deterrent by a British company who advertised it as a way to get rid of loitering teenagers.

Well now that sound has made itself into a ringtone that kids are using to play in class or any other place where ringtones are forbidden. The New York Times wrote about it, Headline News ran a story about it, and now AOL has it as a home page feature. I can only imagine how many people are searching for “download mosquito ringtone” in Google right now and how many parents and teachers will be annoyed tomorrow.

Real estate has long been a quasi-monopolistic industry. Real estate brokers have long controlled access to listing information - via the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) - and have effectively shut out non-brokers from sharing in this information, which has been one of their biggest weapons in the trade. This is rapidly changing. (The Department of Justice was one of the first hammers to this wall).

The current internet revolution, especially web 2.0, has created a channel for sharing and combining all types of data that has been previously locked in seperate databases or unavailable in any significant form to the average user. Zillow was the first major disruptor that gained traction with the public because it allowed anyone to see historical real estate data overlaid on a map - this mashup gave access to everyone, and while the data was not always accurate, it’s was a good first step. Zillow, while being a disruptor, still aimed to connect buyers and sellers with realtors (and make money with contextual advertising in the process).

Redfin is another animal altogether. The company is creating an open marketplace that strives to remove the realtor from the equation of buying and selling real estate entirely. Their first strides have been made on the buyer side by offering buyer-side rebates, but they are currently testing a seller-side model as well. This is a very radical approach, one that has made them plenty of enemies in the realtor community.

While I agree that the internet can bridge the gap between buyers and sellers much better by offering more accessible information, I don’t believe the role of realtors will ever be erased - only shifted. The same way E-trade demolished the inefficiencies that existed in stock trading by challenging the old-school brokereages, these new websites will open up access to real estate listings and general home values to anyone who cares to look. And while these new services will take away much of the existing broker power of controlling the MLS information, realtors, especially ones that buy and sell high end homes will still have a significant role to play in the buying and selling of properties.

Why? Because homes are complex and emotional investments and can never be effectively commoditized. The real professionals in the industry know this and have many competitive advantages that reach way past conventional spreadsheet data.

Realtors must position themselves not as the primary sources of home listing information, but as experts in the field that cannot be defined by quantiative measures. If you’re renting a desk at ReMax and are relying on the MLS to give you the edge, your days are numbered. If you know the ins and outs of zoning, have many contacts with private sellers, know all the reasons waterfront homes on Longboat Key are selling better than those on Siesta Key, and have first hand experience in high-end deals, your future is safe, as long as you understand how this new technology will help both you and your clients.