The online real estate world is abuzz...

Several of us attended the Real Estate Connect conference this past week in San Francisco, hosted by Inman News and attended by more than 1,500 of the real estate industry's movers and shakers.

Every year this is a fascinating conference - full of energy and excitement over innovative ways to both service home buyers and sellers, as well as help real estate professionals achieve greater success in an increasingly online and digital world.

We had a couple speaking gigs at the show, including a full-day mortgage seminar on Wednesday. Many of the HouseValues employees who attended noted how humbling it was that so many folks see us as the category leader. I attended and participated in many presentations and panels where HouseValues and its products were cited for pioneering the lead generation and lead management space, and where Market Leader in particular was noted as a leading lead management tool for real estate professionals.

While this kind of recognition is nice, it's more important to us that this success and leadership is measured in the success of our customers. We wouldn't be here today if we weren't making our customers more successful.