NEW ORLEANS – Internet search giant Google is aiming to make it easier for real estate brokers and agents to add their property listings to the free Google Base classified listing service. The company this week launched Google Base for Real Estate, a single starting point for the real estate industry to walk participants through the steps of using the system.
The goal is to make real estate listings more searchable on Google by making it easier for brokers and agents to put listings in the Google search engine. Google Base depends on users to add searchable content to it, and is now starting to catch on with some prominent brokerage companies.
Two brokerage companies last month announced content partnerships with Google to provide property listings and agent information to the search-engine company. Columbus, Ohio-based Real Living, with nearly 4,000 agents in 12 states, and Prudential California/Nevada/Texas Realty, which has about 5,000 agents in 139 offices, separately announced that they would make property listings available to Google Base.
Property listings uploaded to Google Base also appear in a general Google search.
The site categorizes users as brokers, agents, MLSs and IDX vendors. (IDX stands for Internet data exchange, a method by which brokers share listings online.)
Google has a booth here at the annual National Association of Realtors convention and expo, where hundreds of other companies are showing off new technologies, applications, marketing programs and more.
While Google is reaching out to the real estate industry, more brokers are reaching out to Internet search destinations as new ways to market listings and get more exposure. San Francisco-based Trulia also has signed content partnerships with some prominent firms this year, including Help-U-Sell and Realty Executives, among others.
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