“Real estate professionals love Postlets because you create a property listing just once, and Postlets automatically distributes it across the Web,” said Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff on the Zillow Blog. “Plus, when you create an account on Postlets, you get a personalized landing page so you can showcase all of your ‘Postlets’ in one place. You can then customize your personal gallery with a company logo and an ‘about me’ page where you can describe your services and upload a personal photo to help you gain even more exposure. And it’s free.”

According to Zillow, Postlets already has over 500,000 registered users with 350,000 sales/rental listings.

“Our goal over the past several years has been to develop simple yet innovative products that redefine real estate marketing and search,” the Postlets team said on its blog. “This deal represents a fantastic opportunity to work with some of the most amazing people in the industry and build all of the things we said we would — and much, much more. We’re extremely excited that Zillow shares our vision and is committed to invest in Postlets to deliver tools that will further help you build your business.”

“Ask anyone in the industry, and they’ll tell you that Postlets is a great tool for agents, property managers and landlords looking to promote their listings and manage their online presence, for free,” said Rascoff. “As part of this acquisition, Postlets will continue to send listings to its current distribution partners.”

Zillow’s own traffic has been on the steady increase over the past year, having nearly doubled according to Compete’s numbers.

Postlets says it will reveal more details about what the acquisition means for the company and users in the coming weeks, but promises that it will continue to operate the same.

Zillow said the addition of the BlackBerry app, along with its existing apps for Android, iPhone, and iPad, means more than 90 percent of smartphone users can now access real estate information on more than 100 million properties.

*Multiple search filters that include price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms and other home-related information.

*Homes viewable on a map with high-resolution satellite and street view.

*Home search by location or by typing in a city, ZIP code or address.

*Full-screen color photos of homes.

“With this launch, real estate agents will also have access to the app used by so many of their clients,” said Spencer Rascoff, chief executive officer of Zillow.

“Fifty-nine percent of agents tells us they use their smartphone to preview for-sale and for-rent properties with clients on the go.  Among real estate agents, the BlackBerry (36%) and iPhone (22%) are the top two smartphone brands.”

Zillow will also sell local advertising on both sites, and the 4 million listings on Zillow will appear on Yahoo Real Estate.

Real estate agents will be able to advertise locally on Yahoo Real Estate, and home buyers will have more access to listings on the site along with more photos.

"This partnership brings together the scale of Yahoo’s audience with the depth of Zillow’s real estate listings," Greg Hintz, head of Yahoo Listings, said.

"No other real estate websites are better suited to bring such a vast offering to agents, brokers and advertisers.

The Yahoo and Zillow relationship began in 2006 when Yahoo Real Estate incorporated Zillow’s Zestimate home valuations.
 

When people use the Zillow Directory to search for a real estate agent in their area, results are sorted by local agents with the highest overall ratings and the largest number of reviews.

Overall ratings are based on recommendations on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being “very likely” and 1 “very unlikely.” Users can compare agents’ overall ratings, as well as ratings across a number of categories including: process expertise, local knowledge, responsiveness and negotiation skills.

"Zillow was created to help people make smarter real estate decisions, and choosing an agent is one of the most important decisions a buyer or seller can make," said Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff.

"Agent Reviews are another huge step towards transparency for buyers and sellers. For good agents, it’s a terrific way to stand out from the crowd – the next best thing to a referral. "

Google is committed to providing our users with the richest, most up-to-date maps possible. We’ve built our map from a combination of authoritative sources, ranging from the U.S. Census Bureau to commercial data providers, and have used satellite, aerial and Street View imagery to help complete the map. Overall, this provides a very comprehensive map of the U.S., but we recognize that there may be occasional inaccuracies that could arise from any of those sources. We encourage users to let us know when something is incorrect by using our “Report a Problem” button, found at the bottom right corner of the map.

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch has an interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the company’s mobile plans. 

Developers can now access locations of 250 million phones across U.S. carriers, according to Location Labs, as cited in an article by ReadWriteWeb. This is through an API from the company. 

MobileCrunch talks about a new app coming out called ChatSquare, which lets you chat with other people in the same FourSquare location. This could potentially make Foursquare more useful to more people. 

Silicon Alley Insider points out that Zynga is advertising for a "Software Engineer – Android" on its jobs site. This likely means Android games are on the way. 

Neowin.net reports that Chris Wilson, who was known as the "IE Platform Architect" has left Microsoft for Google. This is particularly interesting, given that Microsoft has just launched its most interesting version of its browser in years, and Chrome is becoming more and more of a contender in the space. Neowin.net says he won’t be working on Chrome for at least another year though, due to a contract with Microsoft. 

Speaking of  Chrome, Google announced today that the Google Chrome Frame has graduated from beta, and is now being promoted in the stable channel. 

The Wall Street Journal says RIM could unveil its answer to the iPad as early as next week. 

MerchantCircle has acquired TimeBridge "to Offer Superior Online Scheduling Capabilities to Over 1.3 Million Local Business Owners."

AOL has partnered with Marlo Thomas to launch a new site. "Marlo Thomas has helped define an empowered world for women, created ground breaking content for children, and produced best-selling books that improve and inspire people’s lives. AOL is delighted to partner with Marlo to bring her content and creativity to the 250 million global consumers of AOL*," said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of AOL. "Marlo continues to have a big impact on families and health through her work at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and we expect her to have just as significant an impact on our audience."

VChatter, which describes itself as "a family-friendly social video chat service with over 2.5M active monthly users" is expanding its service with the launch of a destination site and personal URLs that it says "add a video layer on social sites with a badge that connects directly to a live video chatroom."

The service, which ties a user’s identity to Facebook ID, is able to ban repeat offenders and uses a mix of tools and processes to remove inappropriate content and maintain a safe and clean environment, which would give it a leg up on ChatRoulette. The company’s CEO and co-founder, Will Bunker, founded the dating site that was acquired by Ticketmaster and later became Match.com.

Twitter has made some API announcements regarding the new version of Twitter. You can see the specifics here. 

Mint.com and Zillow.com announced a partnership to help customers determine their homes’ value as part of their overall financial portfolio.

Apartments.com rental listings include home details, photos, floor plans, and property manager contact information.

Listings from Apartments.com will be viewable to Zillow’s 12 million monthly visitors, including two million who are currently renters.  The partnership brings the total number of rental listings for single-family homes and apartments on Zillow to 150,000.

"Zillow offers an unmatched user experience for home shoppers who are renting, deciding whether to rent or buy, or shopping for a home to buy,” said Chloe Harford, Zillow’s vice president of mortgages and new ventures.

“This partnership deepens Zillow’s footprint in the rental search industry, and gives Zillow users access to a new category of managed apartment rental listings.”

In addition to being displayed on Zillow, Apartments.com rental listings will also appear on the Zillow Mobile application, which has been downloaded more than two million times and is the most popular real estate application on the iPhone, Android, iPad, and Windows Mobile platforms.

The move expands on existing partnership between Yahoo and Zillow that began in 2006, when Yahoo integrated Zillow’s home valuations on its own real estate site. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"This new partnership between Zillow and Yahoo! Real Estate creates the opportunity for agents and brokers to reach one of the largest audiences of homebuyers online when they list a home or purchase an ad," said Spencer Rascoff, Zillow COO.

"Today, Zillow offers a range of services for every stage of homeownership and we’re excited to build upon our long-standing relationship with Yahoo! Real Estate and extend our leadership in the online real estate space."

The partnership is set to go into effect later this year, but Zillow and Yahoo Real Estate are already working on sales efforts for the advertising network. Under the agreement Zillow will power all for sale listings on Yahoo Real Estate.

The deal is part of Yahoo’s strategy to focus on its core businesses such as email, news, sports, entertainment and finance.

In May, Yahoo partnered with Match.com, owned by Internet company IAC/InterActive Corp, which replaces Yahoo Personals.
 

The Zillow Android app uses GPS technology to find and follow users on an aerial map, and displays "Zestimate" values, homes for sale, homes for rent and recently-sold data on the homes around them.

Users can also search for homes, even they are not in the vicinity, by tapping the Android platform’s voice search capabilities. By saying an address, neighborhood, ZIP code or city the app will automatically take the user there on the map.

Key features of the Zillow Android app include:

*Home details and historical data on 95 million homes in the U.S.

*Curbside images of homes using Google StreetView

*Multiple photos, home details, and contact information on homes for sale and rent

*Users can filter their home searches by sale price, rental price, number of bedrooms, bathrooms and listing types

"Since the launch of our highly successful  successful Zillow iPhone App, which has been downloaded nearly one million times since April 2009, home shoppers have been asking us to build an app for the Android," said Spencer Rascoff, Zillow chief operating officer. 

"It’s clear that people want access to all of Zillow’s data and information like Zestimates, listing information, and prior sale price while they are out looking at homes or exploring neighborhoods. We saw this as a great opportunity to be on a platform with enormous potential for real estate and home shopping."
 

Zillow also said it has added listings for homes for rent to its iPhone App. House hunters can set search filters by home price or monthly payment, and at the same time find both for sale and for rent homes within their price range.

Users can now share Zillow’s property details, including values and photos on more than 93 million homes via Facebook and Twitter, whether or not the homes are for sale, in addition to being able to email properties of interest to a friend or real estate agent.

"The response to the Zillow iPhone App has been incredible, with more than two million homes viewed on the app every month. People are clearly using the app to satisfy their desire for real estate information exactly when and where they need it most – on location while searching for homes and neighborhoods," said Spencer Rascoff, Zillow chief operating officer.

"Now we’re improving their mobile experience by providing even more shopping tools and home listings, and giving users ways to share what they find instantly with family, friends, real estate agents and social networks."

The Zillow iPhone App has been downloaded more than 945,000 times since its launch in April 2008, making it the most popular real estate app in the Apple iTunes Store.

Something’s happening, and aren’t you lucky to be witnessing it? More and more the Internet and media are converging, and the information you need for your personal narrative is just a click away. Libraries, books, newspapers—one day we’ll look back at them as quaint old-world relics—will become museums, collectors’ items, and wrapping paper. Our paradigm defining journalism is also shifting.

Below is what’s happening in the world of news and media today, from Google digitizing old newspapers (so long microfiche!) and YouTube becoming a road to a Pulitzer, to electronic newspapers and Twittercasting on CNN. 

Google Drops Some History On You

"Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful." It’s a statement you’re probably very familiar with at this point. It is also a statement that Google is still making good on as the latest project in line with this mission is digitally archiving the newspapers of history in a searchable way.

YouTube Partners With Pulitzer Center For Contest

Poor video quality, the pointlessness of many clips, and the fact that the site isn’t profitable have all kept YouTube from earning much respect.  But a new contest called Project: Report may go a ways towards changing that.

Electronic Newspaper Reader Debuts

Plastic Logic has launched a new electronic newspaper reader similar to Amazon’s Kindle, but it’s about the size of a regular piece of copy paper. Like the Kindle, this reader utilizes E-Ink’s black and white display technology.

Zillow, Newspapers Form Huge Advertising Network

Real estate experts seem to appreciate the news regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – it looks like the industry is receiving a huge boost.  Now, specialists in real estate advertising may also have something to cheer, as Zillow and a large collection of newspapers have signed an agreement.

Yahoo! News Getting Redesign, Good for Blogs

Yahoo! News has a new redesign in the works, and in a move that will make many bloggers and "citizen journalists" happy, they are giving some love to blog posts that are covering popular news stories. On what appears to be each article page, there is a section for "most blogged" within the particular category you happen to be in.

New CNN Show Based on Twitter

We all know that Twitter is a huge hit with so-called "geeks," but it just may get a big push into mainstream society, thanks to CNN. The news broadcaster has already been incorporating "tweets" into reports, and now anchor Rich Sanchez, a faithful Twitter user, has left a tweet indicating that they would be debuting a new Twitter show today called "Rick Sanchez Direct.”