The end result is a photorealistic rendering of their vision, complete with specific appliances from specific manufacturers and specific finishes. They can even upload photos of their backyard, for example, have it stitched together as a panorama using MGI Software's Zoom technology and then drop a template design from HGTV designer Haig Sefarain onto it to see how it would look. Or they could just design their own landscape by dropping and dragging plants and other features. Not just sketches, mind you, but real photos from a pallette of 11,000 pictures of 5,000 plants, each with their own tag describing what zone they'll survive in and what their light and water needs are. Zohar notes the software is also intelligent enough to recognize when things are dropped in the wrong place.
Contractors can also bid on the job through the site, based on the plans.
And yes, there will be advertising, although not the usual banners which Zohar doesn't feel are effective. So there wil be an e-mail function where you can collaborate with your friends over the Web site to get feedback and help. And we'll also offer assistance from professionals and designers. You may not be able to afford a designer's expertise on the whole project, but you might not mind paying for a couple of hours of their time for some e-mail consultation on some problem or difficult areas. Which is all fascinating, but I'm still looking for a way to properly curve drywall.