In the 43-person company, that translates to about 13 individuals.  As for the rationale behind the move, there’s always the possibility that this is more of a precautionary measure than a response to current problems, but another reason reached the ears of Valleywag.

Owen Thomas writes, "A source who has seen Wikia’s numbers says the company is experiencing ‘a hemorrhaging of cash circa 1999′ – losses, in other words, like the first generation of dotcoms.  No surprise there, since it has offices in San Francisco, New York, and Poland, and many of its products, like Wikia Search, are staggeringly unpopular."

What no one seems to know, though, (aside from whether the layoffs definitely occurred) is who was affected.  A little bit about Wikia’s current strategy could be learned depending on whether marketers or engineers got the ax, for example.  Even more clues might be tied to which office was most heavily hit.

We’ll keep our ears open, and on a slight side note, recommend that former Wikia employees send their resumes to Trulia.

Trulia’s got all sorts of things going in its favor, with a deal involving Google’s Street View ranking among the more recent and interesting developments.  The Trulia Advertising Network and Trulia Pro are even newer, though, and at least some of the $15 million should go towards supporting these projects.

 Pete Flint

"[W]e plan to aggressively expand our advertising opportunities to give the real estate community hyper-targeted and cost effective ways to make the marketing transition online," wrote Pete Flint, Trulia’s CEO and co-founder, on its official blog.

Social media should receive some attention, too, as he added, "Real estate agents are not just spending their dollars online, but increasingly they are working to build their ‘online presence’ – answering questions, blogging, participating on forums and building out their web sites. . . .  We launched Trulia Voices in May of last year, and plan to expand this community offering significantly."

So long as the housing market doesn’t get so bad that people cease to even think about moving, these all sound like great ideas.

Street View images aren’t available for many cities, of course, and that’s a fairly major drawback to this development.  Yet wherever images are available, Trulia has tied them to corresponding property pages.  Rotate, tilt, and scroll as you please.

 Interesting Homes, Zero Elbow Room

It’s easy to imagine houses getting crossed off lists after they’re discovered to be sitting too close together, directly under some power lines, or in a dirty-looking neighborhood.  There’s no telling how many trips this will save would-be home buyers.

Would-be home sellers needn’t worry, though, as the combination could help them, too.  A questionable house might seem a lot better once people find that it’s at the end of a quiet-looking cul-de-sac and within sight of a small lake.

More examples and explanations are available on the Trulia Blog, but this is as user-friendly an add-on as anyone could ask for.  Geographic limitations aside, Google Street View and Trulia truly work well together.

Still, a little looking-around of our own won’t hurt.  A quick glance reveals that the most prominent question on Trulia Voices was asked just “a moment ago,” and the next ten still fall into the “a few minutes” category – there are definitely lots of people using the site.  In regards to whether they’re finding what they’re looking for, Heather Fernandez, Trulia’s director of marketing, writes, “80% of questions come from consumers; 75% of answers come from RE professionals.”

And those answers come both fairly quickly and in a decent quantity, as Fernandez adds, “The average response time for a question is 20 minutes,” and “[e]ach question receives an average of 3.2 responses.”

(In her post on the Trulia Blog, Fernandez also addressed the odd nature of the “71 day pulse check”: “I mean, if we waited until the first 100 days, it would’ve been more dramatic…but that’s not really how we roll.  Besides, we just pulled the data and it’s too good not to share.”)

All in all, it sounds like Trulia Voices has been a success; that’s sure to please Sequoia Capital, which led a $10 million round of funding for Trulia less than three months ago.  And I’ll now direct a hat tip to Mashable’s Kristen Nicole, who notes, “In other real estate industry news, ePerks has recently launched its network as well, providing real estate agents with another option for reaching out to potential customers.”

There are presumably several different entities behind that donation, but the main name to know is Sequoia Capital.  That’s a powerful name, and as the Trulia Blog states, the people behind it “are the folks behind Oracle, Cisco, Yahoo!, Google, YouTube and many other blue chip companies.”

Trulia wants everyone to know that it hasn’t been spoiled (or corrupted) by Sequoia’s involvement, though; there will be “[n]o change in strategy,” and “Trulia continues to be absolutely unbiased and independent, unaffiliated with any specific media or real estate brand.”

As for what Trulia intends to do with the money, no clear answers were forthcoming.  The company will “expand,” “deepen,” and “develop new products and services aimed at helping consumers make smarter decisions about buying and selling homes,” but that’s not saying a lot.  I mean, $10 million should do or accomplish something.

Still, John Cook, who runs a venture blog for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, thinks these rumblings “could indicate how Trulia plans to go after Zillow, which has not quite won the confidence of the real estate industry.”

The Times article features a real estate company named Trulia that uses the Google Maps API to create a mash-up that pinpoints real estate listings. But free use of that API may be nearing a close as company profits go up.

“Once a mash-up turns into a large-scale commercial enterprise, Google looks to share in the revenue. That is happening at Trulia; Google lawyers are trying to negotiate a royalty agreement,” reports Damon Darlin.

Of course, Google’s usual quid pro quo is the reservation to place advertising on newly created maps, allowing site owners to share in the revenue. If Darlin is correct, though, there are limits how much you can profit through your own business with Google’s help.

UPDATE: A spokesman for Google says the New York Times was incorrect about Trulia being contacted for royalties. “Google does not charge or require a relationship with large API sites,” says Google’s Barry Schnitt.

The Google Map API is available here for those who know their AJAX code. For the rookies, check out Ning, which provides more of a mash-up for dummies guide.