Google Real Estate

Google has combined their Google Base feature with their Street mapping feature to try and make a classified ad Real Estate portal, that the bloggers have titled Google Real Estate . I would like to see them combine this with their Google Earth feature to map out land for sale.

Many pundits predict the doom of traditional advertising mediums and real estate brokers. I doubt it. Not a lot of people will look to Google to find land. However since it is free advertising, I didn't hesitate to put my listings of land for sale on there. I don't see this as a bad thing for me, I see it as a tool to make my job easier. If someone uses Google to find the land I am selling and they buy it, I get a check and Google gets nothing.

I suspect that most of my compeitors will shun Google's new platform. Most of my compeitors websites do not even have static html pages to index in search engines. They want to control access to the information by burying it in "branded" databases. Since their databases are not indexed by the search engines, their sites are difficult if not impossible to find. I wonder how well that it is working out for them, actually I don't really care, I just want to sell the properties I have listed.

I have noticed that most of the entries in the database are from paid lead generators. These are business who Real Estate Agents pay to generate buyer or seller leads. I wonder why agents and brokers can't just type the information into Google on their own.