Realtor.com still No. 1
ComScore rebuts Zillow's claim to have passed longtime leader
By Matt Carter, Friday, December 18, 2009.Editor's note: Inman News, in citing a Zillow corporate blog announcement at Zillow.com, had originally reported that ComScore's data showed that Zillow had pulled ahead of Realtor.com in monthly visitors, though according to this article Zillow had based its report on incompatible statistics.
Zillow.com jumped the gun in claiming to have surpassed Realtor.com in November as the most visited real estate Web site on the Internet, according to the purported source of the claim, Web metrics provider comScore Inc.
Zillow's claim that it had surpassed Realtor.com was based on a non-public report issued by comScore, which recently began using a new methodology for tallying visits to Zillow.
ComScore had not yet implemented the new methodology for other top real estate Web sites in November, according to a copy of the report Zillow provided to Inman News.
In a recent policy bulletin, comScore advised clients that in comparing themselves to their competitors, companies should use a separate set of reports employing only the previous "panel based" methodology across all sites. Otherwise, sites still making the switch to the new "hybrid methodology" would be "unfairly penalized in ranking during the transition."
The bulletin warned that "changes in rank that are a result of mixed methodology comparisons are not allowed."
In post on the company blog Thursday, Amy Bohutinsky, Zillow's vice president of communications, cited a comScore report that showed Zillow.com tallying 5.231 million "unique visitors" during November, compared to Realtor.com's 5.223 million.
Inman News published a story repeating the claim Thursday evening, and retracted the story Friday morning after Realtor.com operator Move Inc. questioned its accuracy.
A comScore spokeswoman said Friday that an "apples to apples" comparison using the "panel-based" methodology to evaluate traffic across all top real estate sites showed Zillow with 3.013 million unique visitors in November, behind Realtor.com, Yahoo Real Estate, and AOL Real Estate.
"Zillow.com is now being measured with our hybrid methodology which caused its figures to grow largely from (October to November), such that a significant portion of its growth was attributable to this change and not necessarily due to organic growth at the site," said comScore spokeswoman Sarah Radwanick in an e-mail. ...CONTINUED
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Submitted by John Rowles on December 21, 2009 - 5:00am.
As homebuyers trend younger, brand names will continue to be trumped by user experience across the board.
Already, none -- none -- of the old-school off line brands can crack the Top 5 real estate sites, despite years of built up brand recognition.
Realtor.com is the anomaly among the on-line real estate brands like Zillow and Trulia and the on-line brands with strong real estate sites like Yahoo and AOL -- trading on its name while offering a user experience that is akin to a NASCAR-sponsored root canal.
The symbolic milestone wasn't reached in November, but the handwriting is on the wall: Realtor.com has started the downward slide, because they just can't fight the demographics of younger users who know the difference between an app and advertising designed to look like an app.
John Rowles
MainRhode Real Estate Search Technologies
www.mainrhode.com
Submitted by Walter Boomsma on December 21, 2009 - 5:24am.
I have to agree with John and maybe go a step further. I would speculate that Realtor.com is too busy making money off Realtors to continue to "dominate" the market.
I have clients complain regularly about their Realtor.com experience.
Submitted by Don Stewart on December 21, 2009 - 6:29am.
Everyone is focused on making money from Realtors - because we are all independent contractors we (and often our brokers and franchises) lack the size needed to attract consumers online - so we have to pay everyone else to do it for us. We are over one million professionals with no real power in the industry.
Realtors need one place to present themselves to consumers online - somewhere consumers know they can go to find a great agent. It has to be fair to all agents, free or very inexpensive for the agents and truly helpful to consumers.
I am a licensed agent and I built it with my own money. It exists now and agents need to come and have a look.
Don Stewart
Agent Invitation Inc.
Submitted by Tom Hurdelbrink on December 21, 2009 - 9:29am.
This article shows the relative lack of research conducted at times and the cavalier support Inman offers some competitors over others.
Submitted by Barrett Powell on December 21, 2009 - 3:12pm.
Value, content, design...may the best site win.
Barrett Powell, Owner, Broker in Charge
Southern Advantage Realty
RSA Software and Consulting
288 East Street, PO Box 1427
Pittsboro, North Carolina 27312
http://www.remaxchatham.com
http://www.realestatewebexpert.com
barrettp@southernadvantagerealty.com
Submitted by Jebediah Granston on January 14, 2011 - 11:51pm.
You can find the right home right here on Realtor.com from home searches that make finding property simple, to property listings that tell you about the property and the neighborhood.
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Submitted by Kelly Martin on July 13, 2011 - 10:05am.
Zillow is awesome. I've used it every time I've searched for a home and I just use it to connect me to a realtor. Otherwise, I've had realtors who "neglect" to show me certain houses because the price is less and they want to make a bigger commission. Not okay.
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Submitted by Kelly Martin on July 15, 2011 - 5:57pm.
But I've never tried realtor.com. I'll have to look into it...
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Submitted by Kelly Martin on July 19, 2011 - 5:57am.
Sounds like some is jealous! surety bail bond