Second homes made easier

Feeling like your vacation home is not all that comfy? Need a new getaway resort to escape the same old people you end up camped next to summer after summer?

Bellevue-based Secondspace.com is one of the new entries in the growing sector of sites focused on finding second homes or vacation property.

The company has created two sub-sites, Resortscape.com and Landwatch.com. The first focuses on finding destination resorts and high-end vacation homes. Landwatch.com is about finding and buying land in the great outdoors. Even so, I found both those sites, for now, produce the same results. Over time that problem may be eliminated.

What’s it cost? Here’s how the company explains its services: “ResortScape.com and LandWatch.com are free to consumers. For brokers and developers, the monthly fee to list on LandWatch.com is $50. Monthly fees for ResortScape.com vary based on property and property configuration. For service professionals and local merchants, listings are free through Sept. 30, 2007.”

Several competing sites have already entered this market. Compare examples such as Escapehomes.com and Landandfarm.com.

Shelfari.org

Seattle-based Shelfari is a bookish social network that launched in late 2006. It allows readers a forum and a Web conduit to talk about books and find others with similar tastes.

Members sign up (for free), create a virtual shelf of their books and then the site creates a visual representation of one’s entire library.

It also allows people to insert their Amazon affiliate identification and sell books.

Other sites competing for the same space (a surprisingly crowded one) include LibraryThing, Listal and Deliciousmonster.com.

Of those, Librarything is the leader of the pack. Shelfari isn’t as big yet, but it will certainly compete for attention among the online book crowd.