Zillow mortage-shopping tool powers Google

Zillow is helping power a new mortgage-shopping tool launched by Google, offering lenders who advertise on Zillow the opportunity to have their mortgage rates, ratings and reviews appear prominently in a tool provided to consumers on Google search results pages. "Together, Zillow Group and Google are empowering people to make the best possible decisions when purchasing a home, while simultaneously creating a powerful marketing opportunity for participating lenders," said Zillow spokeswoman Amanda Woolley in a statement. The tool is currently active in California, "with more states to follow," said Google in a short blog post. Lenders must agree to pay referral fees to Google for leads generated by the tool in order to appear in it, but "payment isn't a favor in ranking or eligibility," Google said. Asked if Google would split these referral fees with Zillow, a Google spokesman said "we're not sharing that level of detail now." Asked whether lenders would...