Trulia adds 3-D map view in upgraded Android apps

Crime, school and other information now available

BY INMAN NEWS, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2012.

Inman News®

Crime heat map view in Trulia's updated Android apps

Real estate marketplace Trulia's free Android phone and tablet apps now offer 3-D Google Maps display and integrate neighborhood information like crime data, school information and nearby amenities in map view.
With the update, Trulia Android app users will be able to see crime data via heat maps, school attendance boundary zones, and other information like nearby restaurants for the first time, said Steven Yarger, director of mobile at Trulia.
The upgrade, which utilizes, and coincides with, a Google Maps software platform update, will allow users to toggle between standard, angled and "satellite" map views in the apps and between 2-D and 3-D.
The 3-D map views, Yarger said, are similar to those seen in Google Earth (a 3-D map system from Google), and can be rotated by users using their fingers. The update also allows users to access indoor maps of locations like shopping malls, where they exist, he said.

Angled map view showing homes for sale in Trulia's updated mobile apps.
Users of Trulia's iPad app, Yarger noted, already had access to some of these features like neighborhood data, but the 3-D feature is new to all Trulia apps and exclusively for Android as of now.

The new Android apps also integrate tools from Trulia's mortgage center, which allow users to see mortgage rates from a variety of lenders via a link directly from a property view in the apps. IPad and iPhone users can access the tools, too, but they're in stand-alone apps, not integrated into the main Trulia app, Yarger said.
In May, Trulia debuted a mobile ads program that allows five agents per ZIP code to advertise on the map views of the company's mobile apps.
Trulia currently has 12 mobile apps that cover general real estate (6), rentals (4), agent needs (2), and consumer mortgage tools (2).