{"id":3226,"date":"2008-06-10T12:19:16","date_gmt":"2008-06-10T19:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=3226"},"modified":"2008-06-10T12:19:22","modified_gmt":"2008-06-10T19:19:22","slug":"how-are-you-gonna-keep-em-up-in-your-vertical-real-estate-search-portal-when-the-future-of-home-search-is-horizontal-and-belongs-to-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3226\/how-are-you-gonna-keep-em-up-in-your-vertical-real-estate-search-portal-when-the-future-of-home-search-is-horizontal-and-belongs-to-google\/","title":{"rendered":"How are you gonna keep ’em up in your vertical real estate search portal when the future of home search is horizontal — and Google’s?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do this: Go to Google and search for Phoenix, AZ real estate<\/em><\/a>. We don’t compete for that term — we’re coming in like 34th place — but a lot of people do — like 3.5 million<\/em> hits for the keyword without quotes.<\/p>\n

Here’s what’s interesting:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Out of those 3.5 million search results, Google Base’s Housing Search comes first. That would be true for any other City, ST real estate<\/em> search you might want to run. You don’t need the state if the search is unambiguous.<\/p>\n

Yes, Google Base doesn’t have a lot of listings so far — only about 4.7 million. That’s twice as many as Zillow.com has right now, but it’s still not very many. The data sources are many and disparate, so it’s plausible that there are some duplicates in there, too.<\/p>\n

And, yes, the search interface is horrible. It hasn’t changed much, if at all, in the past year. But who is willing to bet it won’t change in the next year?<\/p>\n

For plain vanilla horizontal search — of practically anything — Google is god — omniscient, omnipresent, omnibenevolent. If you need more than plain vanilla horizontal search, you have to go vertical — but google wants your vertical real estate search to go vertical with them, too.<\/p>\n

There’s more. The upshot of the DOJ\/NAR settlement is that the IDX level of real estate search is likely to become ubiquitous. Right now, Google Base is limping along like Trulia.com and Zillow.com — partnering relationships with a few MLS systems, a few big brokerage chains, a few listings remarkers like flyer and virtual tour vendors, and direct entry by home-sellers and their real estate agents. That’s about to change as MLS systems, either directly or through IDX vendors or VOWs, make every MLS listing available to all takers.<\/p>\n

If you’re Realtor.com, how are you going to hang onto an audience that can get essentially the same results from the same place they get all their other results — from Google.com?<\/p>\n

If you’re Trulia.com — Realtor.com in pastels — what do you have to offer end-users that will be so much more valuable — a year from now Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do this: Go to Google and search for Phoenix, AZ real estate. We don’t compete for that term — we’re coming in like 34th place — but a lot of people do — like 3.5 million hits for the keyword without quotes. Here’s what’s interesting: Out of those 3.5 million search results, Google Base’s Housing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,6,5,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blogging","7":"category-disintermediation","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","10":"category-technology","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1115,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1115\/true-reform-in-the-real-estate-industry-will-not-result-from-undermining-buyer-representation\/","url_meta":{"origin":3226,"position":0},"title":"True reform in the real estate industry will not result from undermining buyer representation","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been sitting on a post from Jeff Corbett, The X-Broker, for a few days. Jeff Argues that Realty.bots will eliminate buyer's agents. This actually ties in with recent announcements that major brokerages will be feeding listings to Realty.bots like Trulia.com and Google base. I get the idea Jeff thinks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1453,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1453\/if-lenders-divorce-the-commissions-theyll-be-divorced\/","url_meta":{"origin":3226,"position":1},"title":"If lenders divorce the commissions, they’ll be divorced","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Jim Duncan issues a battle cry for divorced commissions:As a profession, we need to rid ourselves of Cooperative Compensation and the practice of the listing broker paying the Buyer's Agent. Cooperation between Brokers need not go away. In fact, without cooperative compensation, the practice of real estate representation will be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10364,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10364\/google-places-is-a-national-real-estate-search-engine-not-so-much\/","url_meta":{"origin":3226,"position":2},"title":"“Google Places” is a “National Real Estate Search Engine”? Not so much.","author":"John Rowles","date":"November 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"...at least not yet. On Sept 24th when the Google Blog announcement of Google Places was posted, there was no mention of Place Pages for Real Estate: \"A Place Page is a webpage for every place in the world, organizing all the relevant information about it. By every place, we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"google_lbc","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/google_lbc.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2830,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2830\/while-the-national-real-estate-market-is-soft-google-pay-per-click-real-estate-advertising-still-going-strong\/","url_meta":{"origin":3226,"position":3},"title":"While The National Real Estate Market Is Soft – Google Pay-Per-Click Real Estate Advertising Still Going Strong","author":"Doug Quance","date":"March 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Is Your Online Marketing Costing You Too Much? As one of those with an online presence, I am always interested in how others attract \"eyeballs\". Back in the early days of Google, I proudly staked my claim on some choice keywords in their pay-per-click program - which brought me a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14027,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14027\/real-estate-listings-on-google-maps-she-is-no-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":3226,"position":4},"title":"Real Estate Listings on Google Maps – she is no more.","author":"Eric Blackwell","date":"January 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Just a passing announcement that Google today officially ended Real Estate listings on Google Maps and Place Pages for individual property listings as well. For those playing the home game, here is the relevant information. So what does this mean? Not much in my opinion. The reason Google dropped these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1659,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1659\/divorcing-the-real-estate-commissions-is-simply-a-matter-of-hud-1-bookkeeping-effected-by-the-mortgage-lender\/","url_meta":{"origin":3226,"position":5},"title":"Divorcing the real estate commissions is simply a matter of HUD-1 bookkeeping effected by the mortgage lender","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In a charmingly romantic post this morning, Jonathan Dalton gets bogged down in the all-too-common idea that divorcing the Realtors' commissions would impose some new financial burden upon buyers, resulting in their loss of representation. This is false. Although we operate by the fiction that the seller pays the real\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}