Introduction to Lokku Labs and Lokku Labs Australia
The Nestoria team has more ideas for ways to match people and real estate than can fit onto one website, so some of them are sent off to be experimented with at the Lokku Labs, which is Nestoria's testing platform. The projects developed here usually offer a different way to search Nestoria data, or else mix the data with other sources.
As well as the buzz of building tools that make it easier for people to match themselves to their new home, the Lokku Labs are about inspiring developers to play around with the data available on the Nestoria API. These are some of the ideas that have come out of the Lab so far:
Freedom of Speech the Gartoo way
Just as there's more than one way to de-fur a feline, there's also more than one way to search for property on the internet. The most common way offered by property websites is the field-restricted search model which involves drop down menus offering specific search ranges – we're talking price/ number of bedrooms etc. - but the kind of free text search you use on Google or Yahoo! can also be harnessed by property hunters on Lokku Labs creation Gartoo.
Gartoo was tested on the UK listings, so searches like 'easy access to Heathrow and Gatwick' and 'Canary Wharf flats to let with security' were processed like guinea pigs though the system. The result being, as you can probably imagine, interesting and varied.
The trick is in making a system that actually understands what the query means – you think people have a hard time communicating, but try inputting 'houses to rent in Sale' into a full text property search and see what listings you're offered! Since Gartoo's creation in August quite a bit has been done on the algorithm and the relevancy of results it returns is constantly improving.
There's an Australian version on the way so you can test out the 'houses for rent in Sale' VIC query there as well.
Where Can I Live?
They call it the rat race for reasons that every big city commuter is probably well aware of... For a lot of people time actually is money, and if they could buy themselves out of an evil commute they probably would, so the Professors at the Lokku Labs came up with a property search based on public transport links called 'Where Can I Live'. The kind of search this little site facilitates are queries like:
It's the perfect tool for people who know exactly what they want and don't want to spend too much time looking for it.
There's also international versions for Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Munich, Berlin and Frankfurt.
Nestoholic: Making you popular at dinner parties
Housing prices are a conversation staple, served up at about as many dinner parties as wine. Dry or heated, this conversation is vastly improved served with Nestoholic, a Lokku Labs development that compares average house prices in different parts of the UK – for example between old rivals Oxford vs. Cambridge, or newer rivals Chelsea vs. Arsenal.
- Nestoholic Oxford vs Cambridge screen shot
To explain Nestoholic's magic a bit more clearly, it uses the Nestoria API, taking the average asking price from the Nestoria database. Because the Nestoria database is updated daily the statistics are pretty reliable and it's a good way to stay on top of the market as well as being a useful tool to back up your opinion with at parties – no need to keep up with the Joneses when you are the Joneses.
