Google Real Estate: “Trulia, but with fewer pushpins”
Walk-Through, the real estate blog of the New York Times, nails Google Real Estate’s launch with the aforementioned description in the title of this post.
Still, as more real estate firms and individuals become comfortable in submitting feeds to Google Base, this will change (the number of pushpins that is). Rolling out the listings in the main search results will certainly go a long way to getting them to submit, with the offer of an ocean of free organic traffic.
If Froogle is anything to go by however, it wont be enough to get comprehensive listings coverage. Many merchants, despite seeing Froogle integrated into the main results, still don’t submit product feeds.
I don’t envy Trulia, who will have to endure (what I am guessing is) their most frequently asked question about their business “what do you do if Google does the same thing?” changing to a statement of “now that Google has entered your business you are fucked”. Even if they have a better product (which they do), it wont matter. That’s just what a lot of people will think, no matter what. The doubter’s original concern will have been proven correct. Even if Google’s product is ho-hum today it will be the best most perfect product sometime-in-the-future. They were right before, remember!
