Does the world really need a new place to search for real estate listings on the Internet?

That's the first question that came to mind when I heard from ShackPrices.com co-founder Galen Ward, who is introducing a new site today that plots for sale listings on Google maps.

Seattle -- home to HouseValues, John L. Scott, Redfin, Windermere, Zillow.com and now ShackPrices -- must be the easiest place in the world to search for a new home online.

Ward, a contributor to the popular real estate blog, Rain City Guide, is undaunted by the competition. I asked him why he started ShackPrices and what makes his site different from others on the market. Here's what he said:

"The world does not need another place to look for listings, it needs a better place to look for listings. Most brokerage sites are afterthoughts designed to harvest email addresses instead of helping people actually find homes that match their needs. Most non-brokerage sites aren't members of the MLS, so they just don't have most of the homes that are for sale right now - it is a real disappointment when you find out you missed the perfect home because it wasn't listed on a fancy non-brokerage search site."

I have been playing around with ShackPrices for the past couple of days, experimenting with its search capabilities. The results are speedy, the listings detailed and neighborhood information worthwhile.

Unlike some real estate sites, ShackPrices' search functionality allows people to find homes by inputting a neighborhood, zip code or city directly from the home page. It also has developed a proprietary algorithm – listed under Suggested Shacks – that attempts to recommend other houses that home buyers might be interested in viewing.

And it offers a neighborhood section, which includes information from the City of Seattle, King County Metro, 43places.com and other sites, about the locations of nearby parks, bus stops, restaurants and bars. For example, a viewer of a property in Greenwood can see that a home is less than two blocks away from Pete's Eggnest and one mile away from the Woodland Park Zoo. They can also see profiles of recently sold homes that are nearby.

At this time, the service is only available in Washington state. Ward – who has self-funded the startup along with co-founder Doug Cole – said it plans to expand to other states next year.

Like brokerage sites such as Windermere.com and JohnLScott.com, ShackPrices is a member of the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. That means it has access to the vast majority of properties that are listed in the state. Ward said that they update the database about every 30 minutes, with plans to expand to other states next year.

ShackPrices is faster than some of the other real estate sites because it is built with AJAX, an interactive Web application that Ward says allows them to load only portions of the page. "We have worked hard to make the site snappy and responsive," said Ward, adding that it could experience some delays during the launch today.

The question still remains whether ShackPrices, which also faces competition from San Francisco-based Trulia, is arriving to the party too late.

Ward -- who plans to make money by matching home buyers with real estate agents -- doesn't think so. And he is a believer that the site will spread through word of mouth, a tough marketing proposition given high-profile competitors and big brand brokerage sites.

"We are entering the market at the right time: real estate search is still in its infancy and no one has built a site that hits the nail on the head," he says. "We believe ShackPrices will get real estate search right with a combination of comprehensive listings and easy to use search."