Question: This question may be interpreted as "too localized", but it is not.

I'm interested in what you find to be the best sites for this type of operation, regardless of where they are located. For instance, I want to learn about how do these sites do the following:

* How do they work with geographic information?
* What search parameters do they use?
* Can you personalize your search? How?

and so on...

Answer: 
The ones I've had most sucess with is:

* [Rightmove](http://www.rightmove.co.uk/)
The best site that I have found is [Freerentalsite.com](http://www.freerentalsite.com/). As far as search you can type in anything that you want. Address, landmark, a park, school whatever and it gives you the results with a radius of that search. They call it "borderless search".

Once you have the location, you can refine your search even more, or click on the mapping to see those results on the map. Best part it is international, but i heard that it is not coming to the US until january 2011.