The folks at Zillow have just released an update to their web site (which first launched in February earlier this year). You can find out more details from the Zillow Blog.

The Cool:
One of the coolest features are scrollable heat-maps (frankly, I thought they’d do this, because it’s been on my Zearch 2.0 To-Do List for the past 4 months). So when you zoom around the map view, check “show heat map” check box, zoom out to the city level or higher, and see Zestimate/sq ft color coded all pretty like on the map. This is slick.

[photopress:Zillow.gif,full,centered]

Another thing they’ve done is add is what they call MyZillow. The feature allows users to keep track of their favorite homes from one central location. You can create your own estimate (and make it public), add facts about your home to supplement the public record and compare it to right next to the Zestimate.

The Lame:
The map page now has 3 banner ads it (2 of which were animated). Although, I understand Zillow’s business model is based on the ads, I think they would be better served by having fewer ads. Even realtor.com only has 2 banner ads on it’s major pages. I hope the next release doesn’t have pop-unders and “hit the monkey for a free iPod” ads.

The Deep Thought:
What will happen if disgruntled reators (or hackers) start entering bogus supplemental data into their MyZillow? Will it effect Zestimates negatively?
Anyway, congrats to the Zillow guys for pushing the envelope a little further. It’ll be very interesting to see what version 3.0 holds and see how far Zillow can push that deCarta DDS box that they have sitting in their data-center.