The Only Constant is Change – Avvo Adds New Features
May 13th, 2010 by Mark Britton, CEO
Last month, I blogged about Avvo getting a “new suit.” Well today we added a couple of shiny new buttons to that suit. Below are a few of the more visible new features; and, not surpisingly, I urge you to visit Avvo and check out the rest!
Results Map: We have a new map on our lawyer search results pages. This map will show all of the lawyers on the page that have claimed their Avvo Profiles. The really neat part is that, when a user hovers over each pinpoint on the map, a summary of the corresponding lawyer’s Avvo profile pops-up, effectively giving the lawyer a free billboard on some of our most valuable real estate. We think of this as a gift to all of the lawyers who help make Avvo a hearty marketplace.
Neighborhood Filters: Do you need a lawyer close by? Beginning today, you can search for lawyers based on neighborhoods within a city. Not only can you type a specific neighborhood into the Avvo search box at the top of the page, but you can also start with a city search and then, from that search results page, filter to your favorite neighborhood.
Avvo Profile Filters: When selecting a lawyer, different elements of competing lawyers’ profiles are important to different people. Some focus on client ratings, others the Avvo Rating or languages the lawyers speak. Because of this, from the lawyer search results pages, we now allow users to filter Avvo profiles by client reviews, attorney endorsements, misconduct, Avvo Pro subscribers, Avvo Ratings and whether the lawyer offers a free consultation or speaks a specific language. - P.O. Boxes: Post office boxes will no longer be indexed for search results. This means that, if a lawyer has a p.o. box for his/her primary or any other office, the attorney will not show up in the search results for the city where the p.o. box is located. So, let’s say a lawyer has a primary office in Manhattan and a p.o. box in Brooklyn. Going forward, the lawyer will only show up in Manhattan search results.
We hope you like all of our new buttons. I had someone say to me recently, “You guys are always changing.” In response, I took the liberty of citing the mighty Heraclitus* who said, “The only constant is change.”
* Thanks to Wikipedia for helping find the source of this quote. I know a lot of great philosophers, but Heraclitus is not one that comes immediately to mind . . .
May 14th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Nice improvements, for the lawyers who choose to participate and continue participating. But how about an “unclaim” feature where the attorney can re-set his or her information to the default, as if the profile had never been claimed?