Largest MLS launches ‘2.0’ search site

Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., which servers the Greater Washington, D.C., region as the nation's largest multiple listing service, today announced the launch of its revamped public-facing Web site, HomesDatabase.com, in beta. The retooled site features keyword and natural language search capabilities, side-by-side property comparison tools and automatically generated suggestions of similar properties based on a user's search queries, among other enhancements. Jonathan Hill, vice president of business development for MRIS, said the site is expected to operate in beta for a couple of months before becoming the default site. "It gives us a chance to make some final tweaks to the site," he said, and MRIS is planning to launch a major marketing campaign for the new site in first-quarter 2009 that will include radio, newspaper and online advertising. The MLS has already promoted the new site tools to its participants using a comic book character dubbed...