SAN FRANICISO--With all the competitors in the online real estate world, it sometimes takes an industry insider to make sense of it all. Inman News Features' Innovator Awards, bestowed at the company's Real Estate Connect technology conference taking place at the San Francisco Hilton through Tuesday, is a good gage of what's truly innovative.

When the coveted awards were announced here this evening, there were a few surprises. Real estate brokerage Keller Williams won the "Most Innovative Real Estate Company" award. Other companies nominated in this category included John L. Scott Real Estate, Prudential California Realty, The Corcoran Group, Prudential Northwest Properties, YourHomeDirect.com and Coldwell Banker.

DataQuick grabbed the "Most Innovative Technology Application or Feature" award for its "Property Finder" service. Other nominees in this field were ShowingTime.com's ShowingAlert, Homefeedback.com, Immobel's Listings Translation Service, InteliTouch MLS, Real Estate Federation, Century21.com's Home Planner and MonsterMoving Agent Network.

The "Best Transaction Innovation" award went to Home-Link. Others nominated in this category were Realty Plus Online's CloseYourDeal.com, Atlantic Bay Company's LeaseLogistix, Vectiv Corporation, AvidXchange, Real EC, SettlementRoom and SmartClose by Expeditrix.

The "Most Innovative Use of the Internet" award went to SafeRent.com. HomeGain's Referral Maximizer, Homestore.com's XLerator, eBay's home listing model, SiteStuff, MyBeazerHome.com, ERA.com and Buzzsaw.com were the other nominees for this award.

Also bestowed was an award for the "Most Innovative Use of Technology in Lending," which went to Indymac Bank's e-MITS technology. Freddie Mac's Home Value Technology, Cendant's PHHmortgage.com, OnePipeline, Ellie Mae's eSuite and Dattar System's AppraisalTrac were the other finalists for this award.

The final award given was to the industry's most innovative "Technology Pioneer." This year's winner was Chris Larsen, CEO of online lender E-Loan.

The Inman Innovator Awards, in its sixth year, honors companies and individuals who have driven innovation in the real estate industry. A record number of nominations were received for this year's competition.

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