Google has added a real estate filter to Google Maps, enabling searchers to look for listings directly via Google. This means that users can not only search for listings directly from Google, but also look at homes and surrounding neighborhood using Google’s Street View.
While this is not a game changer in and of itself, due to the lack of data Google has to work with in showing listings, it is yet another stark warning to the major players in real estate search that Google can step in at any point in time change the world of real estate search as we know it. Once the data problem is solved and Google makes a serious commitment to throw its hat in the ring, there is little that the major players in real estate search today will be able to do stop the intense erosion in market share that will inevitably occur virtually overnight.
At this point this is Google’s world and we just live in it, so if your business model relies purely on search or data aggregation, your model can be rendered meaningless overnight if you cross paths with the big G. The only consolation to the existing real estate search players is that Google is already very busy with other projects and its non-stop push to scale globally.
Companies are now integrating street view with their property listings. Check out http://www.housesell.com.au – users copy and paste the google IFRAME code into the listings.