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Written by rosalind renshaw

Rightmove has done a deal with Google maps, ahead of Google’s own launch into the UK property online market.

The deal, announced yesterday with immediate effect, takes the property internet to a new level, with the two huge players now literally on the same page.

The deal also ends speculation as to whether Rightmove would co-operate with Google on a ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ basis. As a result of the deal, Rightmove becomes one of the largest users of Google maps in Europe.

From yesterday, Rightmove properties are now placed on a Google pap on each ‘detailed view’ page.

However, the application will be expanded over the next month so home-hunters will be able to see initial search results plotted out within their search area – just as they will be able to do on the Google property mapping service.

Google’s own offering, expected to launch in the UK in the first quarter of this year, is likely to be a search engine based on its maps. Property searchers would then be diverted to the agent’s own website in order to see property details. The facility would be free for agents.

The Rightmove deal appears to try to head off this potential threat, relying on its own brand for property searchers, who would not only see the mapping but also the details of several properties – all on one site, as Rightmove does not divert to agents’ own websites.

Rightmove has been running a new TV ad campaign and attracted over 1m visits in a single day for the first time this Monday.

A Rightmove spokesman told Estate Agent Today: “Google are about to launch their own UK real estate offering, which will be based on maps. Rightmove can now offer something quite similar.

“However, we have two very different business models: Google is a search engine, and users will click through on each property to the agent’s own website. On Rightmove, users can see everything they want, all in the same place – not just the location, but the complete property details.

“We also liked the Google maps because they are the best maps around. They’re clear and easy to view.”

Sanjay Patel, of Google Enterprise, said: “With this technology on their site, Rightmove will be able to provide property searchers with a faster, more accurate and more comprehensive mapping system to help them find that perfect home even more efficiently.”


Comments

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    It seems a bit odd how RightMove.co.uk are making such a big deal of utilizing Google Maps on their site now. Lettingweb.com have been set up with Google maps for some time allowing users to search for rental properties on the map. They also have Google Street view set up so that you can see the outside of a property BTW!

    • 05 February 2010 16:01 PM
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    RM must be worried or they wouldn't have bothered, that sums it uup. They only have the brand name at this time because you the agent advertise it. Now advertise for free on Google, put Google sticker in your window and your details and who will be the number one portal... doesn't take a rocket scientist to work that one out. By by RM.

    • 01 February 2010 15:04 PM
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    Brings to mind the word "Cartel"

    • 31 January 2010 08:57 AM
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    Hi all, rememember me? I am still watching. One of the funniest things I percieve from this, however it goes !! as the number one agent in my town (with 17 agents around me) I like the idea of 'pay per click'. I have always thought that 75% OF 'CLICKS' are agents either looking at other agents listings or checking their own. Think about it?? how many times did YOU click RIGHTMOVE

    • 30 January 2010 21:33 PM
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    We offer google Earth/maps files and a map based search which uses google for spanish property. Worth a look if you want to see how maps could work with the traditional listings format of a property portal. Drag or zoom the map and watch the property results !

    • 29 January 2010 22:42 PM
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    So Rightmove now has maps. So what?

    Will this mean that the public stop using them or use them more? No.

    Will it affect anything that Google does? No.

    Has it really changed anything at all yet? No.

    EAs must focus on their service. Matching buyers to sellers is now done electronically whether you pay for it or not (well, when Google gets it act together).

    Internet EAs will be the force soon. Who need a window when your buyer has Windows? The successful ones will be the ones that retain the best service.

    Next!

    • 29 January 2010 21:47 PM
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    Its all a TROJAN HORSE !

    • 29 January 2010 19:48 PM
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    yes john this is exactly how the uk version will work estate agents and private sellers working in perfect harmony i think not. if anything it will push estate agents out if google becomes a major player in this market as people wont need the agent when they can get a private sale via google

    • 29 January 2010 17:28 PM
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    The independent ran a story 'google real estate coming to a street near you' explaining that in australia consumers have been enpowered to become estate agents! Whilst I'm also not happy about getting a price rise at least on Rightmove I'm not competing with private sales....has anyone else seen or heard anything on this?

    • 29 January 2010 17:20 PM
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    Hi Trevor

    you make a good point google is up their as one of the biggest brands in the world but people do not associate it with finding properties as yet, whether they will grow to we will have to wait and see. But google do have an interesting facility called google trends where it tells you basically what people type & search for on google and if you compare rightmove & find property in for example rightmove is leaps and bounds ahead which suggests people who do go to rightmove from google already know rightmoves name and dont click through from a find property in search. Whats my point exactly well take autotrader for example any one can search for second hand or new cars via google but the majority of people still use autotrader because they know it has all the features they are looking for in one place which google doesnt so thats why i think rightmove will weather the storm at least until google can provide everything that rightmove does

    • 29 January 2010 16:58 PM
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    Hi plug plug, The no. 1 Global Brand is Coca Cola, Google isn't far behind. I appreciate we are not talking soft drinks. Rightmove would be light years away. But additionally 90% of people in the UK when on the web first go to a brand called Google, then to RM. Between the G bit and the RM bit, Google have the power to structure redirections and search as they wish. RM are also basically saying list with us and you'll also be found on Google. In time UK buyers and sellers will (once Google make listings easy to find and pretty)auto go to Google. Other than an uploader, RM will make itself secondary.

    • 29 January 2010 16:04 PM
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    Trevor surely it the content of the post not the name of the poster that matters??? and as for your argument about google having more stock this matters little it is the brand awareness that will win at the end of the day! globrix is a prime example they went and scraped all of the other protals of their properties and loaded them onto their own site and probably had more stock than RM if not the same but does anyone use it? nope because they dont have the brand awareness rightmove does.

    Hypothetical situation for everyone if google does take over as the uk's number 1 in the online property sector in terms of traffic property brand awareness etc where do estate agents sit because if i was one of these savvy internet types we now talk about i would think why list on google through an agent when i can do it myself and not pay anyone a fee because google rely on their adwords???

    i expect the usual responses referring to proffessional honest service hard working service cannot be replaced etc etc but come on guys dont you think thats clutching at straws somewhat?

    • 29 January 2010 14:25 PM
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    Hi Mark. At the moment the largest UK portal is Rightmove. If you take 100% of RM's listings and aggregate them to Google, then RM listings + Google will = more listings than on RM alone.

    In the US NAR National Assoc Realtors banned Google from searching listings directly from their data base in fear of creating a place where more listings could be found than on NAR direct, thus retaining the No.1 spot. If RM don't list to Google many agents will create. If they do I think RM will shoot themselves in the foot making Google No.1. My biggest fear is a sole mega site where private sellers will go to and by pass agents. They key thing for agents is to get the listings on and control where they want listings to appear. The USA quite often sets agency trends. Last year the iPhone got stronger, and with the iPad now released as an on person communication centre or modern filofax for Jo Public, it will be easier than ever to get new media forms such as emags etc to potential buyers. If agency technollogy is developed for agents, then the likes of Google allow self sale listings to use this to person technology at £'s per listings. The effect could cripple agents. Our government keeps regulating agents heavier, yet private sellers face no fines or vast restrictions. Maybe Google have a poor search at the moment for a reason. Maybe if it appears bad, its not seen as a threat. But with the biggest and best IT bods and money, Google can create the ultimate property search platform.

    • 29 January 2010 13:44 PM
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    If searching by Map was not so attractive, why would Rightmove suddenly go down the route of announcing this news, its the future, people want to see where a property is, see street view to check the area, now regardless of what any agent thinks, people looking for houses WILL use google, why not ? they use it for all their other searches, google will give them the most up to date experience and everyone else will be playing catch up. Once the customers flow through google, google make money from the adsense so they are happy, customers are happy and will be contacting agents direct via theirown weblinks, AGENTS should be happy asguess what this lead cost you NOTHING !

    • 29 January 2010 13:38 PM
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    Google will make plenty of money from Adwords alongside any property search. Agents | Solicitors | HIPS advertisers will pay because if you have 1000 people searching on Google for Houses for Sale in Reading and 300 go the Google maps route, (I would because if I move locally I'd rather use a map especially with regards to school catchments etc) then that's 300 people in the market. And who wouldn't pay 10 pence a click to get them to your website?

    Customers will probably be able to set up a Google Alert to tell them of any properties that come on the market.

    As for Google charging per lead --- it's a great idea for Google when they have something that's delivering i.e. 90% of all properties listed being searchable and sending quality searchers to agents.

    Have you noticed Google Local doesn't appear when you type in "houses for sale Reading"? With trades like Plumbing, carpets etc you'll get a Google Local "Magnificent 7" map. But not with property searches. That's probably because Google don't want it to appear.

    Who searches and how many and the way they do it is constantly evolving and will always be evolving. It means you have to be on top of your marketing and measure the value of your leads and what it cost to get them, whatever the channel they come from. If you don't know this then how can you judge whether Google, Rightmove, Findaproperty, Advertising etc is the best route.

    One way to do it is offline with tracking your calls from all channels but that's a big subject area for a comment! (just email me instead).

    • 29 January 2010 13:32 PM
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    Stephen, you are not entirely correct. I have been using both Google Map and List based searches on my own site for many years now. Visitors are given a choice. Apart from September last year, when the split was uniquely 50/50, the Google Map based search in every month of every year is favoured by visitors. The stats speak for themselves. I have never advertised on Rightmove but offered them the opportunity to pay me!

    • 29 January 2010 13:22 PM
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    Good old Google. I think we should send them out to Afganistan. They would sort that lot out double quick.Rightmove will probably feel the chill wind of competition but they have proved they are the competition. Homeview.co.uk will also be listing with Google asap.

    • 29 January 2010 13:13 PM
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    I say EAT start their own portal led by us agents!

    • 29 January 2010 13:01 PM
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    Trevor, why do you assume Right Move will have less properties, if they don't choose to feed to Google which they'd be stupid to Google will miss out on those exclusively marketed on Right Move, of which there are many.

    • 29 January 2010 12:44 PM
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    Confirmation, I'd like to discuss this with you further but you stay un-named. Im happy to take critiscm but I prefer to know where it is coming from. If we are doing things wrong we can improve. It's true our site hits are lower than others. But I can 110% say that we try and help agents and not rip them off. RM made large net profits and still many agents say their subscription has gone up. We accept they are no.1, and agents want to be on no.1, RMwill by fact of numbere have less listings available than listings aggregated to Google. As an agent, I know that getting your listings out there is easy, we don't fight that battle. But I also know that if you havn't got it you cant sell it. We concentrate on tools that get agents listings and just try to help where we can.

    • 29 January 2010 11:52 AM
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    Trevor Mealham thanks for comfirming that your background is agency and not how to run a portal. Great to have a reason to why your site will never be visited than in your own offices.

    • 29 January 2010 11:45 AM
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    plug plug plug: Its really a case of wait and see I'm sure. None of us can say for sure if visitors will prefer the map based search or the list based. The response we get (we create websites which have both options) is that it depends entirely on the visitors experience in browsing. The map based appeals to more savvy internet users. Its all up for grabs though thats for sure.

    • 29 January 2010 11:38 AM
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    Can people please use their real names rather than pseudonyms. Didnt want to plug, but:

    They are 4 portal models: 1/ free (no future) 2/ freemium, 3 pay per click, 4/ subscription. We are able to offer a 5th being pay the agent to list. My background was as an agent and many portals rip agents off. Say what you like but we would like to introduce agents to a whole new model. Please feel free to contact us at admin@inea.co.uk. Yes now it is a plug, 2/ I don't care. 3/ We just want to help agents get the listings on and everybody makes money.

    • 29 January 2010 11:38 AM
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    Firstly to all the agents who think every should boycott rightmove and sign up to property live and other useless portals and make them no 1 this plan is clearly flawed because even if it did happen what do you think the first thing the new number 1 website would do???? exactly what rightmove do exploit this and charge for it they know they're number 1 and if you want the best you have to pay for the best! why do you think theyre free??? so they can build their members and traffic to get to a stage where they can start charging for it duh! Stephen my mistake as you are correct they can filter their results but have you asked your applicants how many of them like to search via a map or see a comprehensive list of results in order on a webpage i'm sure the vast majority will opt for the latter and this is where rightmove beats google hands down who wnats to keep linking back and forth to loads of different agency websites to look at full details and have to keep on opening new windows it is by no means a smooth process and im sure this will put most users off

    • 29 January 2010 11:26 AM
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    I was in New York 2 weeks ago at the Property Portal Owners Workshop and Inman Connect. 80% of the portals are scared of losing revenue from subscription models: FACT. Googles search at the mo is poor and hard to find, let alone find properties, but they have the technology to make the property search the ultimate experience and to be the first page that appears. If you look in the right places it has great potential. Google has the power to move RM down the listings on page 1. 90% of UK search starts on a google page. 26% of property search starts in the google search box. When searchers enter in the Google search box say: 4 bed in XYZ, it may or may not revert to RM, or maybe you direct. RM became No.1 (soon to be No.2) by listing most properties in one place. By RM listing where and others listing to Google that are not on RM, Google may be where RM are today, in just a couple of years. The key thing is not how to get listings out anymore, the secret is getting the listings on?

    • 29 January 2010 11:14 AM
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    plug plug plug: Of course users can filter properties. Chris Williams: Google already use Pay Per Click on property listings - but just on the left of the map. Its no downside to using it for the visitor or the agency.

    • 29 January 2010 11:12 AM
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    Rightmove's prices up again I read, I wouldn't know of course, having pulled out some while ago (I wonder if all the others who said they would drop them too at the time did in the end?). As I've said before if you qualify to get on NAEA/ARLA's PropertyLive DO SO, and if you are already on do you publicise membership on your web, your details, your advert etc
    just like you did for RM? Wouldn't it be interesting to have a website of agents not on RM with links direct to our own sites and the free portals - agentsnotonrightmove.com for instance? If the public rely on RM only when property searching
    we could then prove they are missing x% of available properties and should search agentsnotonrightmove.com as well!! Cheers, Big T

    • 29 January 2010 11:10 AM
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    Smartmove: by adding a simple map on the property details page is not an indication that Rightmove are now 'one step ahead'. I thought I might be wrong and Rightmove have made some major deal with Google so I just spoke with Rightmove and they confirmed that this is the only addition: something which has been a standard element in most estate agents websites for years.

    Of course the public use Rightmove now because of brand recognition and thats why free portals have failed. But Google need to help in brand awareness. And Google do show all properties in one place. Thats the point. The details of the property the visitor finds is on the website which Google points them to. Along with the details of the agency and much more information than Rightmove shows.

    • 29 January 2010 11:05 AM
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    Stephen you clearly have no interest in this story and simply wanted to plug your website. You refer to the google proposition as a portal which it clearly isnt as mark correctly states there is no way to filter through results or put specific criteria when searching it is simply properties plotted on a map the majority of which will be uploaded by private sellers so the quality and legitimacy of these listings and details is very much up for debate. This is clearly why people search on rightmove because it has all these facilities and the quality of the properties and details is clearly going to be better and it has the complete package which google doesn't

    • 29 January 2010 11:02 AM
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    YOU AGENTS MUST ALL BE AS THICK AS SHIT!!!

    IF YOU THINK GOOGLE ARE GOING TO CONTINUE TO GIVE TRAFFIC AND ENQUIRIES FOR FREE FOREVER TO ESTATE AGENTS THEN YOU ARE ALL TOTALLY MAD!

    GOOGLE MAKE MONEY ON ADWORDS FROM CLICK THROUGHS TO WEBSITES. JUST WAIT, THEY WILL GIVE IT AWAY FREE FOR THE ITM EBEING THEN ONCE THEY HAVE GOT YOU ALL HOOKED THEY WILL THEN INTRODUCE A PAY-PER-CLICK FEE WHICH SIMPLY EXTENDS THEIR ADWORDS STRATEGY INTO REAL ESTATE USING LISTINGS FROM AGENTS AS THE FRONT TO DO THIS.

    GOOGLE IS A PLC - IT MAKES MONEY ON ALL ITS ACTIVITIES AND I KNOW FOR A FACT (KNOWING SOMEONE WHO WORKS AT GOOGLE IN LONDON) THAT GOOGLE HAVE EVERY INTENTION ON CHARGING AT A LATER DATE.

    I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU ALL THINK A BIG COMPANY LIKE GOOGLE ARE GOING TO DO THIS FOR FREE LONG TERM - HAVE YOU NO SENSE!

    ALSO, WHY DO WE AS AGENTS EXPECT EVERYTHING FOR FREE?

    ON THAT BASIS IF WE DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR SERVICES THEN WHY SHOULD VENDOR'S PAY US FOR THE SERVICE TO SELL THEIR PROPERTY?

    OH NO SORRY I FORGOT, WE EXPECT EVERYONE TO PAY US BUT WE DON'T WANT TO PAY ANYONE FOR ANYTHING.

    COME ON EVERYONE GET REAL!!

    • 29 January 2010 10:58 AM
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    Fab. The No. One will make itself the No. 2 so long as Google has 1 listing that RM doesnt. Will we see their marketing depicting RM the UK's no.2 Property Search. The big threat of the future will be the private sellers, who if they can list where agents can for nothing?

    • 29 January 2010 10:56 AM
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    Stephen Brennan thank you for your totally unbiased opinion. Its quite clear that rightmove are yet again one step ahead. Why do the public like to go their more than any other site? because they have the brand recognition and you can view all in one place. What they have now achieved is to match any additional benefit Google may have offered putting them back in control. Expect more increases next year as the other portals will be even further behind.

    • 29 January 2010 10:56 AM
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    I think buyers will use Rightmove - it gives clarity, where as using google may well be free, but users will be uncertain, unless they can search with the same sort of criteria laid down by Rightmove.
    Independants who don't use rightmove will be better off, where as firms already on rightmove won't get any advantage over the competition - surely that's the whole point isn't it? I'd be glad to pay a monthly fee of around £300 a month per branch if it generated huge leads - will google do the same?

    • 29 January 2010 10:53 AM
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    Considering using Google maps is completely free of charge to companies like us and Rightmove, it's poor show that Rightmove weren't already doing this a long time ago. It's one thing to charge high fees if you're adding high value, but to add maps now as a knee-jerk response to Google's threat would annoy me if I was an agent. Why didn't they do it ages ago?

    • 29 January 2010 10:51 AM
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    Equally Google aren't trying to be a portal. Have a look at the site in Australia and there's no real ability to filter or more importantly get email updates when suitable property is listed on the site.

    Think Right Move have missed a trick here because very easily they could have enabled a match search a la Globrix that would have suited a large portion of the buying public who prefer to search that way

    • 29 January 2010 10:47 AM
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    Yes agents can and will list their own properties on Google with the link direct to their own website. You can do that directly when the Google site becomes live or via software now such as Estate Solutions CRM system: estateCRM.

    It appears that Rightmove have simply added Google mapping to their website. I cant see how that will stave off the threat that Google Property Portal poses to them.

    The point is that Google Property Portal is free. Rightmove isnt!

    Google Property Portal points directly to the agents website (to the property itself in the website). Rightmove shows all the agents competitors' properties.

    There appears to be no benefit to the person searching properties or to the agent to use Rightmove rather than Google. Unless the agents website isnt up to scratch. Shamelessy at this point let me say that EstateSolutions.co.uk is the leading provider of websites to estate & lettings agents and would be more than happy to assist if that were the case.

    • 29 January 2010 10:35 AM
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    Why do that?

    Google in time would have wiped the floor with
    rightmove. Got my new bill through today for 2010, prices have gone up again every year is the same.

    • 29 January 2010 10:30 AM
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    So what is now needed is a rival to Google. Yahoo Maps perhaps?

    • 29 January 2010 10:18 AM
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    So can agents list their own properties on google with the link direct to our own website?

    • 29 January 2010 10:10 AM
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