Oh…and the icons are cuter than Yahoo!’s. :)

Here is our blog post about the launch:

http://daily.hotpads.com/hotpads_daily/2007/01/hotpads_launche.html

I wanted to point out that local school info (public, private and libraries) has been a part of an Ask.com Smart Answer at the top of web results pages when running a city name search for quite some time.

Example, a search for Costa Mesa, CA.
http://www.ask.com/web?q=costa+mesa&qsrc=0&o=0&l=dir

Note the Smart Answer at the top of the web results page and the link for “Schools.”
This link goes directly to the National Center for Education Statistics database.

The NCES page finds public school info, private school info, colleges and public libraries and their data is used many places.

Here’s another example, again look for the link labeled schools.
http://www.ask.com/web?q=suffern+ny&qsrc=1&o=0&l=dir

NCES data is used many places. It’s also possible to go directly to the NCES database directly.
http://nces.ed.gov/globallocator/

Here you can limit your search to various types of schools and also schools/libraries within a specific radius of a Zip Code.

Finally, the always useful collection of free data services at Melissadata.com offers a School District Map Search that outlines a specific school district on a map. Free, registration is required.
http://www.melissadata.com/lookups/mapschool.asp

I wanted to point out that local school info (public, private and libraries) has been a part of an Ask.com Smart Answer at the top of web results pages when running a city name search for quite some time.

Example, a search for Costa Mesa, CA.
http://www.ask.com/web?q=costa+mesa&qsrc=0&o=0&l=dir

Note the Smart Answer at the top of the web results page and the link for “Schools.”
This link goes directly to the National Center for Education Statistics database.

The NCES page finds public school info, private school info, colleges and public libraries and their data is used many places.

Here’s another example, again look for the link labeled schools.
http://www.ask.com/web?q=suffern+ny&qsrc=1&o=0&l=dir

NCES data is used many places. It’s also possible to go directly to the NCES database directly.
http://nces.ed.gov/globallocator/

Here you can limit your search to various types of schools and also schools/libraries within a specific radius of a Zip Code.

Finally, the always useful collection of free data services at Melissadata.com offers a School District Map Search that outlines a specific school district on a map. Free, registration is required.
http://www.melissadata.com/lookups/mapschool.asp