With more people turning to the web for real estate information and as distance becomes less of a factor for consumers looking to invest or move, Location Inc., based in Woonsocket, and Investment Instruments, based in Beverly, Mass., have developed websites to meet the rising market demand.

Location Inc.'s neighborhood search engine (www.neighborhoodscout.com) sees 100,000 visitors a month and has been highly praised by this year's edition of "Home Buying for Dummies". In addition, MapQuest founder and former CEO Barry Glick, became head of Location Inc.'s board of advisers last month. Use of the search engine costs $19.95/month or $99.95/year.

Meanwhile, Investment Instrument Corp.’s [Providence-residing, connectprovidence.org-founding Owen] Johnson said that his company’s Web site for small-scale property managers, iiProperty.com, is in its second phase of testing. Though he would not give specific figures, he said that “thousands” of people use the technology.