Wednesday, 5/24/07, Yahoo announced its new and improved Home Values Section. The Section is a mash-up of data and information from Yahoo's partners and providers and takes Yahoo a big step closer to becoming the "Go-To Site" on the Web for Real Estate information.
Yahoo's new Home Values Section moves its association with Zillow another step toward a purchase.
Google, Yahoo and MSN don't have Local Search down yet. The battle for the minds and hearts of Local Searchers could well be won or lost with their search for a home, and their ease and ability to find the most relevant home data and information. Yahoo's dominance in this area could give it a leg up and puts it a click closer to Local Search dominance.
Besides providing Zillow's data and information, Yahoo adds information and data from 2 other noted Online Real Estate sources: Reply.com and eppraisal.com.That even satisfies your father, who told you to get 3 estimates. Why go anywhere else? And Yahoo even advertises, which gives it a distinct advantage over Google.
Yahoo now provides tax assessments, sales histories and neighborhood comparables. With this information, Yahoo may rest the role of Online Real Estate Spear-Catcher from Zillow.
I've thought in the past that Zillow would become "The Google of Real Estate",but with these moves Yahoo has positioned itself to become "The Google of Real Estate" and "The Walmart of Real Estate".
All this is happening while Move Inc, the NAR and Realtor.com is standing by watching.
As Alan Yassky of the NAR put it to Move Inc, operators of Realtor.com for the NAR, "The lions are here and they're eating our lunch".
In the past the NAR negotiated with Google to supply the search functions for Realtor.com. The NAR wanted to hide some of the listing data and include FSBO information. Both of these issues violated Googles' stated vision to: "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful".
Google, Yahoo and Zillow are Web 2.0. We can either join them in the Web 2.0 Lion Hunt, or be eaten along the way to Real Estate 2.0.
Adapt Or Die! Happy Searching.
WebHomeUSAblog; The Blog of Real Estate Search Marketing
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