Since the great app rush began, Web companies have scurried to build mobile apps. In some cases, they have realized that their services are better suited to cellphone screens than computers.
Zillow’s iPhone app has been downloaded by more than one million people.Take Zillow.com, the real estate Web site, where people can hunt for prices and other details about houses. Zillow’s iPhone app adds GPS. People walking their dog through the neighborhood can snoop on the prices of their neighbors’ homes.
“It’s a way better experience in the field than on the PC,” said Rich Barton, Zillow’s chief executive. “When you’re walking or driving, you get estimates or homes recently sold — stuff you can’t see.”
Nine million people visit Zillow’s Web site each month, according to the company. In less than a year, its app has been downloaded by more than one million people, who view the details of two million individual homes on their phones each month.
Zillow is starting to sell mobile ads to local business and real estate agents, an opportunity that surprised the company. “We thought it would be an extension of our brand, not a money-making entity,” said Amy Bohutinsky, vice president of communications at Zillow.
A new version of the app released in February added rental listings and the ability to share Zillow’s home data, photos and property values on Facebook and Twitter.
Yelp‘s mobile app is another example. Yelp’s Web site is useful for looking up reviews of the restaurant your date recommended or finding a good tailor near your home.
But on a cellphone, it gets a lot more useful. Yelp’s iPhone app uses GPS to search businesses near you and then gives you directions to get there, so you can find your way around in an unfamiliar city, for instance.
Earlier this week, I had five hours to kill between interviews in Silicon Valley. I needed to go somewhere nearby with wireless Internet, food and coffee. In two minutes, Yelp gave me the name of a cafe five minutes away, and I was armed with driving directions, recommendations on what to order and assurances from customers that there were electrical outlets and the proprietors did not mind people spending hours there.
Pandora is another example. As I wrote about on Monday, cellphone apps for the Internet radio site have brought 35,000 new listeners a month as people realize they can listen to music on their phones on the treadmill or in the car.
What other apps work best in their mobile form?