Blog 3.1 Zillow

Zillow is an online real estate site that gives ordinary users the ability to access for free, real estate tools and information that previously were not available to the public for free, or without the use of realtors. Zillow stores and updates data daily on 95% of the homes in the United States. This means they have a vast amount of data, data that would become almost useless if not for MIS systems that allow this data to be turned into information. After this data is converted into information, customers are able to make informed decisions and achieve business intelligence. Zillow is always going one step further, for example, customers are able to query specific search details and get a response that displays only homes that meet that criteria. Zillow is able to maintain uniqueness in the market by offering services such as not only buying but also renting, selling, mortgages, and even an agent finding service to connect you to a real estate agent. Zillow has taken into account all aspects of home buying or selling, and best of all, these services are free of charge to the customer.

When search queries are submitted on the site, the stored raw data is accessed from what is called a “data lake.” A data lake is a storage repository that holds a vast amount of raw data in its original format until the business needs it. (pg. 124) Due to the sheer volume of raw data Zillow receives every day, it would never be complete data if their MIS systems tried to convert all the raw data into information. The use of a data lake allows the raw data to be stored until it is needed and then can be converted to a smaller data set that can be analyzed and then made into useful information for the user. This allows users to achieve quicker answers that are also up to date and accurate. In an industry that can change daily, this means accurate information can be relayed quickly. It is easier to go to the lake when you need a fish than to try and catch all the fish from the lake at once. The bigger the lake, the more valuable the use of a date lake retrieval system is.

Is the information I am viewing on Zillow genuinely complete? Suprisingly, that answer is no. But that’s ok because it is more important to have accurate information than it is to have complete information. And in the scenario of infinite amounts of raw data, it is nearly impossible to ever achieve complete data. When businesses have what it called “dirty data,” then you would have both the problems of inaccurate information and incomplete information. Dirty data simply means data that is erroneous or flawed. Therfore to clean up this data, companies will perform what is called information cleansing, which uses complex software that removes incosistent, or incorrect or incomplete information. The end result is that the users are given more accurate information and can use this to better make decisions.