Zillow's top five Trick-Or-Treat neighborhoods in Seattle |
Register here for our next TechFlash Live networking event, March 23, featuring an expert panel discussing the future of online advertising.
Today On Techflash
- Legal troubles mount for ex-Minecode CEO
- March Madness at the office hogs bandwidth
- Blue Nile sues rival for stealing photos
- An inside look at SEC filings
- GoAhead embraces open source
- RealGames resets strategy, adds new execs
- Microsoft ranks No. 1 in patents
- Amazon seeks Unpay trademark
- PS3 Natal spoof: Hilarious, and misleading
Tech Events
Mass High Tech
Zillow's top five Trick-Or-Treat neighborhoods in Seattle
Now, here's a splendid use of technology. Zillow.com -- the Seattle online real estate company best known for its automated home valuations -- has put its complex algorithms to the test to come up with the top five Seattle neighborhoods for trick-or-treating. They are Wallingford, Queen Anne, Magnolia, University District and Capitol Hill.
In a blog post, the data geeks at Zillow explained how they came up with the ranking of where to locate the most KitKats, Crunch bars and Candy Corn.
"There is a common belief that wealthy neighborhoods are the Holy Grail for harvesting the most Halloween candy," writes Zillow's Whitney Tyner. "However, to provide a more holistic approach to Halloween trick-or-treating, the Zillow Trick-or-Treat Housing Index was calculated using four equally weighted data variables: Zillow Home Value Index, population density, Walk Score, and local crime data. Based on those variables, this Index represents neighborhoods that will provide the most candy, with the least walking, and minimum safety risks."
The idea builds on one started by the Capitol Hill Blog from a few years ago when they incorporated Zillow's heat maps to show off the neighborhoods which potentially could deliver the most sweet treats.
And the idea of ranking Halloween hot spots fits right into Zillow.com CEO Rich Barton's thesis: "If it can be rated, it will be rated."
Geez, kids have it so easy these days.
[Flickr photo via Kurt Schlosser. Pumpkins in Ballard, one of the Seattle neighborhoods that didn't crack Zillow's top five]
UPDATE: King 5 picks up on the Zillow.com list, with this report.
About John Cook
John Cook is co-founder and executive editor of TechFlash. He has been covering the technology beat for nearly a decade, writing about startups, entrepreneurs and venture capital, most recently serving as a reporter/blogger at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
READ FULL BIOGRAPHYRecent Sponsor Posts
Seattle University Software Engineering
Chinwe Okeke (MSE’08) pursued her graduate degree while working as a developer and technical analyst for the Boeing Company. She picked the SU-MSE program for small class sizes and real world learning opportunities offered through the academic service-learning and capstone projects.
The MSE program at Seattle University is geared for working professionals with classes offered in the evenings. The program builds upon the computing experience of its students and offers courses in a variety of technical and management areas of software engineering, with an emphasis on teamwork and a disciplined approach to problem solving.
Marchex is one of Seattle’s largest ad technology companies with 300+ employees providing call and click based performance marketing products, and managing over $100m in ad budget for tens of thousands of advertisers. Our customers range from local businesses to the Fortune 500.
Our talented and creative product engineering group is hiring.
If you are an innovative software design engineer interested in solving difficult problems at scale, across a wide array of technologies from Lucene to Hadoop to Asterisk and SIP then we’d love to hear from you!
Apply now.
Technology Tax Planning – Did You Take The Deduction?
Technology companies require professional advisors who can assist in all aspects of the business. The BDO Technology Practice provides a full range of services tailored to help address the changing needs of domestic and international companies. In addition to core audit and tax services, BDO professionals can assist technology companies with:
· Revenue recognition
· Business combination accounting
· R&D tax credits
· Compensation and benefits
· Business valuations
Backed by 38 national offices and an international network in 110 countries, we have the domestic and global footprint to serve growing technology companies. Contact sphilpott@bdo.com (audit partner), mreeves@bdo.com (audit partner), psmith@bdo.com (tax partner), tzambito@bdovaluation.us.com (valuation), tfiscus@bdo.com, Director, 206.624.2020
Job Listings
- Principal Program Manager - Health Solutions Group - 711442
- Microsoft Corporation
- Software Development Engineer, Senior - SQL - External - 708993
- Microsoft Corporation
- Senior Staff Engineer - Printer & Scanner
- Intellectual Ventures
- Account Executive- Hospital - WA/OR
- RF Technologies
- Installer / Technician
- Northstar Broadband
