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Google Moving In To Property Market With New Listing Service
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If I was one of the big property sites like Daft here in Ireland or Globrix I would be very worried today with Google making what looks to be a pretty significant move on to their turf. Google seems to be taking on pretty much every business sector that comes to mind and today it looks like the lucrative property listing market is their latest target. This is a very early move but it is possibly one of the most interesting developments in this industry and is on early evidence I would have to say a stroke of pure genius on Google’s behalf. There are just so many reasons why this will be a huge success and shake up the whole industry…
Google map of London with property listings
Cutting Out The Middle Men
Google’s whole business is based on cutting out the middle man. Why pay somebody to place your adverts when you can place them yourself via Google Adwords? They have turned that in to a multi billion dollar business and now Google wants to go a step further and cut out more middle men like estate agents and property listing websites. The want people to come along to Google and list their own houses or apartments. It looks like the service will be free and feature advertising around the listings which could be an interesting move given that most listings sites charge a couple of hundred Euros to have your property listed.
Google Street View Integration
We all know that Google have been busy scanning the world so as we could all have Google street view and look at pretty pictures of our local street. Now although this is great for navigation and maps we know that Google have not been doing all this expensive mapping for the good of their health and that there had to be some business sense behind it. I think this is one of the great examples of how Google Street view could be used effectively. We have seen some great early examples of this sort of technology with apps like this one from Daft which features augmented reality but can you imagine the power of something like this form a company with the reach and marketing power of Google?
Android Integration
I want to paint a picture for you…Imagine walking around the neighbourhood where you want to buy your house with a newspaper and a map. Lose that map and replace it with an android phone and streetview and this new listing service and you have the perfect tool for browsing places to live. You would literally be able to walk around without having to consult any third party sites although having said that there is also huge potential for 3rd parties to build even more functionality through apps for android with this sort of information at their fingertips.
Privacy concerns?
As always there will be privacy concerns. We have seen a huge reaction to Google even taking images of people’s houses and Google recently got in to some hot water about grabbing people’s Wifi details. This new service will provoke more outcry but realistically I think we live in a world where very little is private anymore anyway and most of this information is freely available on property listing websites as it is and all that Google is doing is making that information easier to find.
Will It Succeed?
This is one of those products that when you first see it you say WOW why didn’t I think of that. It is a blindingly obvious addition to the services that Google offer but it’s easy to say that now that it has launched. Even though Google will claim that they are not infringing on the property listing websites (who would be big advertising customers with them it has to be noted) there is no doubt that this will shake up the market. It’s very early days for this but I really wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if in a few years when house hunting the first thing we do is whip out a mobile device and start scanning the area we want to live in using our mobile phones. Google is all about making the experience of search better for us all. We all live in a house or apartment and we often search for new ones so Google has just entered a huge new market and I would expect them to do it very well and dominate very quickly or at least shake it up and make people change their business models.
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Hi Niall,
We are one of the partners in Northern Ireland supplying data to Google, and don’t see it as quite the threat that you do, for a number of reasons. Firstly, without data, you’ve got nothing, so it would only take one move from Google to “upset the apple cart”. They have the resources to allow individuals to list themselves for a fee at the minute – so why approach anyone? Secondly, online estate agency is at present unproven, and the security and reassurances provided by an agent for a purchase of thousand pounds in most cases is a necessary part of the process, especially where legals are concerned. When was the last time you spent a couple of thousand online?
We’ve already seen what happened when Google stepped out of its comfort zone to try and sell phones.. and this is an involves significantly more risk, and legal wranglings. Nope – far better to stick to what they know, and monetise existing content in different ways.
Paul Anthony
Paul great to get a bit of perspective from your side of the fence on this one. Good point there that you have about people still needing all the legal side of things to make the process run smoothly, thats Defo not something that Google should or will be getting involved with. What about a listing website that does nothing but list properties? Surely it is a problem for them in the long run?
Very interesting move by Google and I agree that it will be a threat to the existing property listing websites.
Paul, estate agents don’t provide legal services, their role is to connect buyers and sellers and close deals – in other words their role is to promote and sell property. The legals are handled by solicitors and neither the buyer or seller need an estate agent for that.
Any business, especially one with the resources of Google, that enters the property sales and promotion market, will be a threat to estate agents. I don’t have stats, but anyone I know who was in the market for a property, did at least some searches on Google. If buyers and sellers can find each other through Google and use their respective solicitors for the legals, why do they need an estate agent? The answer, is probably related to agreeing a value for the property, but as buyers and sellers have access to more market information, they will have a greater knowledge of prevailing values and again less need for estate agents.
This move by Google will also have an impact on the revenue newspapers generate from property ads.
The thing a lot of people have missed about this announcement is that Google rolled out this exact service in Australia and New Zealand around a year ago. What would be interesting to see is how it has affected the existing players in those markets (http://www.realestate.com.au/ and http://www.domain.com.au/). From a quick look around it doesn’t seem to have affected their traffic negatively. What it has done to their revenues I’m not so sure about.
I wouldn’t be very happy if I were in Daft.ie or RightMove.co.uk today, but I wouldn’t say it’s the end of the world either.
Google are very much missing the point if they believe that there is no human side to the property market. There is and always be emotion involved in property sale and purchasing. This emotion is sub-contracted by Vendors to estate agents who are well trained at utilizing and exploiting this sense. For all Google’s expertise and brilliance it is unlikely that they will conquer the personal elements. Property websites will further evolve and develop, competition will ensure this.