Land Grab: Google Expands Real Estate Listings

Will Scott, July 6th, 2009 at 7:16 am ET:
Premium member since 01/2009

Matt, Isn’t this a bit of catch-22?

If the local MLS denies googlebot but then distributes through other sources who don’t aren’t they still making their listings scrape-able?

The problem is that this is yet another disruption by google of an advertising supported medium just like newspapers. So, yet again, google replaces the original advertisers (who’ve been supporting the medium for 100s of years) with their own at pennies on the dollar.

I’m all for organized accessible information but given google’s propensity to get it wrong I’d much rather be directed to the source.

---

Andrew Goodman, July 6th, 2009 at 9:08 am ET:
Premium member since 01/2009

Certainly, their competitors such as Zillow (and in Canada, ZooCasa) had intended to be enormously disruptive as well so it’s not only Google that is prepared to ruffle feathers.

Breaking the hold of MLS won’t happen without some virtual bloodshed. And as things fragment the question becomes, if there is to be a universal source of home listing information rather than many listings all over the place, who will homeowners/agents wind up working with? Who will homebuyers turn to?

Advantage is perhaps to Google because they have technological momentum and a history of being a “universal” source for info. But by working in so many different verticals (that they perhaps lack passion for), they also get Google involved in too many ecosystem battles. Something in the back of my mind says, you can’t pick/start too many fights at once. If everyone starts hating you for moving into their turf, it can be costly. Google’s many “beta” forays into organizing the world’s information, once relatively innocuous, are now greeted with a sense of lingering doubt.

---

nickstamoulis, July 6th, 2009 at 1:05 pm ET:
Premium member since 06/2009

Thanks Matt for highlighting this functionality! I personally think the send to phone, email and GPS is an excellent feature.

---

Cohn, July 6th, 2009 at 8:12 pm ET:

Thanks for the overview Matt…

“Show search options” now includes “Real Estate” in the Google Maps toolbar:

http://searchmarketingcommunications.com/2009/07/06/search-real-estate-listings-on-google-maps/

---

Randy Zorn, July 7th, 2009 at 9:18 am ET:

I like the Idea. Google maps is easy to use and finding a home with other mapping tools requires a bit of a learning curve + I am all for Free information.

---

tcar, July 7th, 2009 at 1:10 pm ET:

“Closer to home, the National Association of Realtors recently made its feelings clear when it called Google a “scraper” site ”

Hi, I work for NAR.

The National Association of REALTORs did not call Google a scraper site. There are some MLS rules in place that make the technical process of opening real estate listings feeds to be indexed by Google (like through an RSS feed) that can be interpreted as a violation because those processes make it very easy for a scraper to come along and republish all of the information.

NAR established a workgroup to review and possibly update these rules, and currently passes the decision whether or not to allow this back to local boards.

---

Roost, July 7th, 2009 at 3:08 pm ET:

We like Google for everyday searches, just like the next guy! Here at Roost.com, we live and breathe real estate for the web everyday and think our laser focus is apparent to consumers who use our real estate search engine. So while Google explores this market, we know that homebuyers are best served by a search that provides access to truly current MLS data like ours — it’s the only way to know you’ve got the most comprehensive and accurate information (providing the best shot at locating your proverbial “dream home”). Saving time is also key, underscoring the importance of having everything you need in one place (photos, contact information, comps, mortgage calculator, zestimates, etc.) contained in a clean design that has only the real estate customer in mind. We also think it’s a burden to be continually asked to conduct a sign-up process when you’d like more information on particular homes. It’s all in the details….

Derek Overbey
Sr. Director of Marketing & Social Media
Roost.com

---

Estately, July 7th, 2009 at 5:51 pm ET:

Google is a formidable competitor, but their real estate search has two major shortcomings: missing listings and user experience.

Google real estate drags feeds from broker sites, which means they don’t have all the data in the MLS and they are missing a lot of properties that are for sale. Missing a few web pages is okay for traditional search, but people who are buying a home want to make sure they are seeing everything.

Additionally, Google requires a lot of clicking through to sites and back to the search results to see more information and photos. This makes for a very disjointed user experience and a lot of important bits of information – the local schools, mortgage calculator, past pricing, past sales – are not available on Google or your typical real estate agent website.

Google could absolutely do fantastic things with its real estate search, but it isn’t close to being as easy and useful as a typical MLS-based site right now.

Disclaimer: I work at Estately.com and we feature a powerful search using MLS data.

---

crisfrankel, July 7th, 2009 at 8:21 pm ET:

The question is, who’s more accurate, Google maps or the former leader, Mapquest?
http://webhosting.reviewitonline.net

---