NEWSbeat
PORTALS
exclusive interview
Google: “We are working with agents, not against them.”
Google’s plans for a property search offering have caused speculation and overreaction
says Ben Wood (above), Head of Property at Google UK. Google has booked exhibition
space and will speak at the Property Professionals Show in May and this has already caused further speculation on their reasons for the high profile. Will they announce the launch of a Google property portal? Will it be for agents – or for individuals to sell and let their homes directly through Google? How would that affect the portals? Ben Wood spoke exclusively to PROPERTYdrum to discuss the Google approach. He said that they don’t have concrete plans to launch a UK portal or mapping facility. “The press coverage on Google’s plans for property, stating that we had briefed estate agents was pure speculation. I have never spoken to most of the people quoted.”
What he had done was to speak to a group of estate agents on how Google could promote their properties and maximise traffic to their own websites. “I was giving some market insights based on our
property search data which had shown a marked increase in property searches in the summer – a most unusual surge in comparison to previous summers and an indication of the release of pent up demand once the floor in property prices had been reached.” Ben says that Google is
interested in agents’ use of their facilities, paid for and free – “Pay-per-click Google Adwords are cost effective and simple, Google Analytics can help you understand where your traffic is coming from
‘The vast majority of people in the UK will never want to sell their home directly, without an estate agent.’
and how to get the best value. We also have the Website Optimiser tool which is free to use.” Google, says Ben, will not be making any attempt to wipe out estate agents or the property portals that they use. “The vast majority of people in the UK will never want to sell their home directly, without using an estate agent. It’s too difficult, too time consuming.”
If agents can take comfort from that opinion, what is his view on Sarah Beeny’s website, Tepilo – Sarah has said that a Google property portal would destroy Rightmove and its competitors. “I think this was a massive
overreaction from Sarah. She made a number of assumptions that simply aren’t true. Of course, she has her own agenda in the promotion of her website but Rightmove has brought tremendous benefits to estate agents and we are working with them to provide mapping; we have no intention of destroying companies, our business is providing products for people to find what they want.” “As I said, we have not made
a decision yet on launching a UK property search engine, there are some technology issues, but we want to be working with agents and property portals, as we do in Australia and in the US. Is Rightmove a competitor? Well yes, in some ways; we are asking agents to spend money with us, as is Rightmove, but they are also a customer of ours.” But agents are still concerned; the Google portal in Australia
offers a direct route to market for individuals, is he saying that won’t be the case here? “There were similar fears in
Australia but if you explore the site there are very few FSBOs (For Sale By Owner). Google search engines are open to everyone – even Microsoft advertise with us, we do not limit our service in any way, that is not what makes the internet work. Very few people want to sell direct – they can advertise on Google but they would have to build a website for their home, arrange a feed to Google property and make sure they regularly updated the information. Then they’d have to stay at home to show people around… it is just not going to be the route for most.” But never say never. Would they
allow Tepilo to upload properties to Google? “Of course, why not? People have a choice, in the same way as anyone can advertise using our Adwords. The internet is open to all and so is Google.” Ben Wood will be speaking at
the Property Professional Show at the Birmingham ICC on May 17/18. PROPERTYdrum will bring more exclusive information to readers as soon as it is available.
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8 MARCH 2010 PROPERTYdrum
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