Escala re-launched or added content to their websites recently. (To notify everyone they sent an email but linked one of the button images in the email to the wrong website and so they sent the email twice.)
The main Escala site is not surprisingly a Flash based site.
The benefits of a Flash based site are:
- They make the designers of the site a lot of money
- They feel very early 2000 when everyone discovered Flash
- They do nothing for you in terms of search engine optimization, the cheapest form of marketing
- The user experience is inconsistent from most every other user experience on the web forcing the user to learn how to use your site because it is so special
- Doesn’t mean you have to spend time on web analytics and optimization
What I do like about their site is that the floor plan search is useful though lacking a search by price filter. Based on our experience with millions of people using Redfin we know lots of people like to filter on price.
As for their other site, Club Cielo, fortunately it is non-Flash based, does have some renderings, and features some very attractive people who do not look like they have ever lived in Seattle.
Popularity: 12% [?]
