NAR Changes Its Mind: Google Is Not A Scraper Site
Nov 18, 2009 at 2:17pm ET by Matt McGee
Backtracking on a controversial decision earlier this year, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has adopted a new policy that allows real estate professionals to have their sites — including home listings that belong to others — indexed by search engines.
The controversy reached a peak this year when the NAR agreed with a local decision in Indianapolis that said real estate agents couldn’t let Google and other search engines index the property listings on their sites if those listings belonged to other brokers/agents. In March, the Indianapolis board sent a letter to some agents that essentially called search engines “scraper” sites:
“…the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) is in agreement with our interpretation of the policy that the above described practice of ‘indexing your Web site’ as you have called it, is a method of scraping or reproducing the data”
At their meeting this week, the NAR Board of Directors revised its policy on home listings and search engines to say that participants “are not required to prevent indexing of their Web sites by recognized search engines.”
That Realtor.org link is also interesting for its comments about the development of REALTORS® Property Resource, which many say is essentially a national search engine for property listings.
Share, Bookmark & Discuss This Article
More:
Keep Updated: News Via Email | News Via RSS Feed | News Via Twitter
See more stories like this in the Members Library! Check out the Google: Critics, Legal: Crawling & Indexing sections of the Members Library where this story is filed. Members also get access to exclusive video content, a members-only weekly & monthly newsletter, plus more. Check out all the benefits!
ONE COMMENT ON NAR Changes Its Mind: Google Is Not A Scraper Site
TOP STORIES
SEARCH NEWS BRIEFS
FEATURES & ANALYSIS
RECENT COMMENTS
- webliquidgroup said " Very interesting use of Toyota's misfortunes, to illustrate best practices in PPC management! What's"
- Michael Martinez said " Oh, good. Yet another piece of bad SEO advice coming from a major SEO site. Eric, why don't you prov"
- moreno_raul said " Hi Kelsey, We agree with your post and think the iPad is going to be the next big thing. I am specia"
FREE DAILY SEARCH NEWS RECAP!
Stay on top of all the search news with our daily summary, the SearchCap newsletter. View a sample ›
STAY CURRENT THROUGHOUT THE DAY
Search Engine Land produces SMX, the Search Marketing Expo conference series. SMX events deliver the most comprehensive educational and networking experiences - whether you're just starting in search marketing or you're a seasoned expert.
SMX Web Site » | SMX Difference » | SMX News »
Join us at an upcoming SMX event:
- SMX West – March 2-4, 2010
- SMX Munich – March 23-24, 2010
- SMX Toronto – April 8-9, 2010
- SMX Sydney – April 22-23, 2010
- SMX Advanced London – May 17-18, 2010
- SMX Advanced Seattle – June 8-9, 2010
- SMX East – October 4-6, 2010
- SMX Stockholm – October, 2010
Learn more about search marketing with our free online webcasts and webinars from our sister site, Search Marketing Now. Upcoming online events include:
- PPC Content Networks and Placement Campaigns – February 9, 2010
- Need to Know SEO – February 11, 2010
- PPC & the Long Tail – February 18, 2010
- Hey! That’s My Conversion – February 25, 2010
TRACK US SOCIALLY
- Wall Street Journal Recommended Reading
- Ad Age Power 150 Blog
- Technorati Top 100 Blog
- Techmeme Leaderboard Source
- Best Search Engine Community/Forum
Featured sites from our Blogroll
- Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
- Distilled – Monitoring your Reputation Online
- Search Engine Watch Blog
- PalatnikFactor.com
- Ogle Earth
Get Your Search Engine Land
Premium Membership!
Become a premium member today and receive:
- Express commenting privileges & photo.
- Exclusive videos & newsletters.
- Discounts to our SMX conferences.
- Access to "How To" & Other Archives.
© 2010 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Google, Yahoo & Microsoft logos trademark respective companies and used with permission.
I didn’t know Rupert Murdoch was in control of the NAR.