In July 2009, Google made the decision to throw their hat into the real estate ring and give customers the ability to find properties for sale or rent directly from Google Maps. Similar to property searches found on most real estate websites, Google offered the basic functionality needed during the process of buying or selling a home. However, less than two years later, Google has decided to withdraw.
This afternoon, Google announced they will no longer be offering their real estate listings search effective February 10, 2011. Google explained their reasoning behind this decision below:
“In part due to low usage, the proliferation of excellent property-search tools on real estate websites, and the infrastructure challenge posed by the impending retirement of the Google Base API (used by listing providers to submit listings), we’ve decided to discontinue the real estate feature within Google Maps on February 10, 2011.”
Because Google experienced low adoption rates and did not dedicate the resources necessary to move this service forward, they were essentially unable to compete with the advanced search functionality available on many real estate websites.
So what does this mean for The Active Enterprise Network?
In the past, we had to compete with Google for online traffic. Now that Google is no longer in the running, members can use this to their advantage and further increase traffic to their websites. With 85% of all property searches beginning online (and a large majority starting on Google), this is a major breakthrough for our industry.
More than ever, we need to separate ourselves from the syndication outlets by positioning ourselves as the local experts. By providing the latest and greatest functionality for our end users, our customers will become accustomed to using our sites for all their real estate needs. Through the advanced functionality and features available on all Enterprise Network sites, our customers will have access to technology that is revolutionizing the way users search for properties.
This announcement is a testament to The Enterprise Network’s dedication to cutting edge technology and innovation as we continue to pave the way as market leaders.
For more information, read Google’s official announcement.
By Amanda Stephan
This is incredible news for our clients!
With the new upgraded map search and LifeStyle search options being introduced early this year, our Enterprise members will further secure their positions as market leaders in their communities.
Amazing! It will be interesting to see who is next if Google is pulling out of the game.
Wow – what a shock! This is wonderful news and I’m glad to hear it. Here’s to hoping others follow…
This is good news. Folks get snowed into thinking that Google is the end all for everything and when it comes to real estate they were never good at providing a good, useful search for buyers. I can think of a few other folks I would love to see drop.
Without naming names, syndication sites out there just need to understand the industry better. They cannot try to compete with the brokerages that provide them their content. “Black Hat” syndication outlets who are all about using your content to rank themselves above you (using no follow links etc.) will also fall into the background within a few years. It’s an unsustainable model. When will a syndication site thats all about the brokerage join our market?…a “White Hat” real estate syndication outlet!
As a “White Hat”, we appreciate all you do, hoping for more, keep up the good work gang. I was talking with a market leader in Akron who was with Delta as was one of their top competitors and they were bemoaning the fact that they were competing against both a company in their market and their own technology provider….glad that is not your policy.
[...] the point we made about syndication last week (for more information, read Google Drops Real Estate Search), we need to consider our options when it comes to separating ourselves from syndication outlets. [...]
[...] Google Drops Real Estate Search [...]
[...] Google Drops Real Estate Search [...]
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