Yahoo's listings maze

So there's a twist to yesterday's announcement that Realogy Franchise Group will feed listings from CENTURY 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA and Sotheby'€™s International Realty to Yahoo! Real Estate. Realogy's listings will be posted in the site's classified section, unlike listings Yahoo! gets from Prudential, which show up in agent/MLS searches on the Yahoo Real Estate page.

Huh? If you're a consumer, and you go to the Yahoo! Real Estate page, there is a search box that requires you to select one of five listing types -- including "Homes for Sale" (where you'll find Prudential's listings) and "Real Estate Classifieds" where Realogy's listings will be. If you don't have an eye for details, you may search one set of listings without realizing there are other options. There are also separate searches if you want to look at new homes or foreclosures, and a checkbox for apartments.

While it's logical to let people narrow down their searches if they want to, why force them to conduct as many as four searches to find the homes for sale in their market on Yahoo! Real Estate? The answer, it seems, has more to do with the agreements Yahoo! enters into with advertisers than making life easy for consumers (and enabling them to find your listings).

When asked about the deal with Realogy during a panel discussion Friday at Real Estate Connect SF, Yahoo! Real Estate's Michael Yang said it's part of a "road map" the company is constructing to "engage with the industry in accepting more listings"

Agents have long had the ability to upload listings to Yahoo! Real Estate Classifieds, Yang said (the advertised price is $49.95 per listing for 21 days). But with the new eagerness brokers have been showing to push their listings out to portals, he said, "The phone and the e-mails have been coming off the hook, (with brokers saying) 'Work with us to find a way for us to submit listings en masse.' "

So does the deal with Realogy mean that anybody can start feeding listings to Yahoo! Real Estate (if only to the Real Estate Classifieds?). Well, no. Yang said Yahoo! Real Estate will work with brokers who want that capability on a "partner-by-partner" basis, because Yahoo! wants to pitch other ways of advertising through the site as part of a package deal. You can't just send a feed, Yang said -- you have to buy into the company's "road map."

To get started down that road, you have to fill out a "Partner with us" form on the company's Web site, which is a starting point for further discussions, Yang said.

Meanwhile, Google's Justin McCarthy sat next to Yang, chomping at the bit for his chance to plug Google Base, which allows brokers and agents to upload listings in bulk to Google for free.

Plug it McCarthy did, extolling the simplicity of the Google Base interface and explaining that, while it can be difficult to explain advertising concepts like cost-per-click to a small brokerage, "The bulk upload and free display of listings is kind of a no-brainer."

Apparently not for everybody.

While it might not make sense for every portal to take free listings, if you're going to charge for them, it seems like you'd want to make the process a simple one. If the agreements you reach with one advertiser make it hard for consumers to access another's listings, aren't consumers going to end up on somebody else's site? Without traffic, how do you attract advertisers?

It's hard not to wonder if Yahoo's road map for accepting listings is actually turning the site into a maze for advertisers and consumers.

All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.