But does anyone really care?
Well, if you’re using Postlets, and you haven’t taken the time to dig into what these changes mean for you, then you had better keep reading.
For starters, I have to admit I was wrong. I thought for sure (and even tweeted several months back) that Zillow was going to take Postlets for a stroll back behind the barn. But Zillow bought Postlets a dress and lipstick instead. And she sure does look much prettier.
But there are some not-so-pretty aspects to this makeover.
Hardest hit was the Postlets feed URL. It’s just gone. Did you have a site or service that relied upon Postlets’ feed URL to pull listings from your Postlet’ account? Well, you don’t have one any more. And there appears to be no replacement for this feature in sight.
ShowMojo got hit with that particular issue. It took down our Postlets synchronization jobs for a couple of days. I’m happy to say that we have new synchronization logic and we are switching clients over to it.
And there are significant changes to other parts of Postlets. These changes could end up in some unintended outcomes. Here’s three quick tips to get you up to speed.
First, for rentals, consider adding the street address into your rental description for each listing. Postlets now hides the street number for any rental in its system. so “1301 Second Avenue” becomes “Second Avenue”. I really have no good explanation as to why. Confusing and frustrating prospective renters doesn’t seem to be in anyone’s best interest. And there’s no way to turn this address masking off. Hence the recommendation above. (UPDATE: This is fixed. Thank you, Postlets!)
Second, if you are using a Postlets gallery, make sure you add a website URL. All Postlets galleries now have a website link – no matter what. But you didn’t enter anything in the field? No problem – it redirects to the Postlets home page. Oops.
Third, do not direct-link to your Postlets listings. Or, if you do, take those direct links down as soon as the listing is off the market. When a renter visits a Postlets listing that’s off the market, they are offered listings from other users, then redirected to HotPads.
On this last item, I want to step in to defend Postlets and Zillow. It’s a free service. So it’s not their responsibility to funnel your errant traffic back to you. I know that’s a difficult pill for some people to swallow, but there’s always a price to pay for free.
So, Craigslist scrooges us in the beginning of November by taking away our HTML and hyperlinks. And now Zillow rearranged all the furniture and forgot to turn the lights back on. I sincerely hope Trulia doesn’t have a Thanksgiving turkey in store for us.