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Google getting ready to take on Rightmove?

08 July 2009
Written by rosalind renshaw

In a long-awaited move, Google seems to be finally muscling up to take on the property portals at their own game.

It has happened in Australia and New Zealand, where a new tool on Google’s mapping service now links users direct to ‘real time’ property lists, supplied by a network of estate agents and a publisher.

The facility allows users to search for property by various criteria. Suppliers of the property listings are not charged, challenging the accepted paid-for Australian portal model, particularly REA Group, which is 60% owned by News Corp.

It is REA and News Corp which are currently trying to divest themselves of Propertyfinder in this country.

Intriguingly, it has also been reported that the second largest shareholder in REA has sold its complete shareholding – none of it to News Corp.

In the UK, Google has been steadily raising its game in terms of property, launching and refining its mapping and street scene tools.

However, it has yet to make a pre-emptive strike on the portals market, where its major challenger would be Rightmove.

Comments

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    Google will mostly be sending clicks I assume. And as clicks aren't tracked well in the property space, then it's not really a threat to portals who deliver phone call and email leads. It's also right to assume that many Google products fail as well as the fact that Google must balance their big advertisers needs (Rightmove etc) with products which threaten those advertisers. In other words, Google is not going to launch products that threaten the millions in revenue they make from adwords clients in that sector. My 2 cents.

    • 11 July 2009 11:47 AM
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    @Harrison, more like 70-80% plus, they have no discernable distribution strategy other than Google and minimal marketing clout other than Globrix. They also do not have unique content as Agents now freely distribute their listings to multiple sources.

    • 09 July 2009 11:07 AM
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    We have covered this issue quite extensively over at Property Portal Watch. (www.propertyportalwatch.com)

    I think that the natural feeling everyone has is that if it is Google then it will be successful. Of course that is not always the case ... take Froogle, Chrome and a few others to show that just because Google does it, doesnt mean that they will automatically win.

    Secondly, dislodging incumbents is often thought to be simple but frequently extremely difficult.

    Finally, how are they going to stop people trying to game the system and go to the top of the search. People do it every day with the standard search.

    It is not a given that Google will win.

    Simon Baker
    Publisher
    Property Portal Watch
    A Classified Ad Ventures Company.

    • 08 July 2009 18:59 PM
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    The title is so incorrect. Less than 20% of Rightmove's traffic is dependent on serach engine traffic and therefore will have very little impact. Its the rest that should worry, i.e. Globrix, Propertyfinder, Findaproperty who depend on Google for at least 30-50% of their results.

    • 08 July 2009 18:13 PM
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    There was a story last year about this:

    technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3940747.ece

    Where Houseladder.co.uk and Hunt4AHome.co.uk are used as source for Google's UK Property listings.

    Maybe the Times were onto something back then?

    • 08 July 2009 13:59 PM
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    Yes, Google will gain its revenue for the service from the Google Ad Words service with ads appearing down the right hand side of the page from associated advertisers, such as removal companies, conveyancers, mortgage brokers etc etc.

    So, all in all, not bad for the public, and hopefully free to the agent!

    An the agent can always choose to pay for their own Ad Words on the site, where they feel appropriate. And it's 'pay per click' too! Not bad!!!

    • 08 July 2009 12:56 PM
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    The ONLY reason RM is as successful is because of it's TV campaigns. RM has never tried to market through the internet. These are not competing businesses.

    • 08 July 2009 12:53 PM
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    The service is also live in the UK and US. I have written about it on the estatecreate blog.

    • 08 July 2009 12:50 PM
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    Google et al will make their money from selling the adverts (google adwords) round the edges.

    • 08 July 2009 12:35 PM
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    This is all very well, but someone has to pay somewhere along the line becasue they can't do it for nothing.

    • 08 July 2009 12:17 PM
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