Google maps improved for Estate Agents

Estate Agents are watching Google's move into property listings on Google maps like a hawk with a magnifying glass. They know that any major change can have massive implications on the way properties will be viewed online.

The latest development from Australia has got tongues wagging. Google are partnering up with L J hooker, one of Australia's biggest Estate Agencies, to place 16 big Google Map 'Pins' all over Sydney, in an attempt to get people to automatically go to the internet to search for property. It sounds slightly ludicrous but Australia already has a rich culture of 'big things' - including a big pineapple and the first 'big thing', a big banana.

The marketing campaign will also include a few advertisements using the little yellow Street View man you drag onto Google Maps to access and view what areas Street View has available.

To date Google links to over 1,000 Estate Agent websites in Australia including Ray White, First National and Century 21. At this moment in time, there are no mentions of any partnerships with Australia's top two property portals, realestate.com.au and domain.com.au.

So far the team at Google seem unfazed by this. Andrew Foster, product manager for Real Estate search on Google Maps stated that Google is happy to take listings from anyone and that he has seen genuine enthusiasm from the property industry. Andrew Foster then went onto display some new features that Google Maps will have on Google.com.au.

Firstly users will be given the chance to narrow their property search to view the properties that are right for them. Options such as sale/rent, minimum price, maximum price, property type, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, parking and preferred area.

Users can toggle on and off another layer of photos, videos, Wikipedia articles, webcams as well as a live traffic monitor. Once someone has found the property that they are interested in, they are presented with more detailed information with price, address, photos, floorplans, a small Google Map and Google Street view and a link to the Estate Agent's website or a property portal.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques commented on Google Maps in Australia, 'These are exciting developments showing that Google are making a real push to ensure the success of property listings on Google Maps. Unfortunately no comments were made on any developments in the UK.

Properties on Google Maps - a little bit of history repeating?

After our recent article Google defies Rightmove throne; Rightmove shares gutted, there has been much interest and feedback regarding the likelihood of Google consuming the property portal market. Luckily Google already hosts properties for two countries - Australia and the U.S.

Google started listing properties on its Google Maps in Australia back in July of this year. With exactly the same affect, the main portal company realestate.com.au (REA group) had an initial 7% drop in shares. Six months later, the REA group has not only regained ground but the shares have increased 53% since the drop.

Therefore on a purely historical sense, Rightmove is likely to rebound from the primary shock and 'the end is nigh' predictions. Estate Agents against property portals need not cry too much over the possible survival of Rightmove, Google maps listing properties can work towards an Estate Agent's advantage.

Estate Agents that have fantastic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and unbeatable web design do not have to fear. Google is not a property portal and it is going to stick at what it is good at - being a search engine. Therefore this has to be viewed as an extra medium for potential traffic. Users will click round the map till they find a property that they have interest. From there, the user will be directed to the agent's website.

Uh-oh - Bad news for Estate Agents that does not live up to today's standards. Without design that has that 'WOW' factor, functionality of property portals, and rich user-experience, you can guarantee that the user will press the 'Back' button. Right now a possible customer has just been lost within a few seconds of accessing your website.

On the other hand, it is fantastic news for Estate Agents that have a website that they are proud of. The extra avenue of traffic means that Estate Agents with stunning web design will retain more users than those that do not have that WOW factor.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'This change is truly exciting for estate agents that taken the positive step towards improving their website from the awkward designs of the 90s. If your website does not have that WOW impact then it is certainly time for a redesign.'

Visit our portfolio page or call Resource Techniques on 0208 457 4777 to achieve the type of web design that will keep old customers and capture new ones.

Minesweeper and Solitaire - the hidden education from the misunderstood demon

When people first started using GUI's (Graphical user interfaces), they needed something that will help them easily pick up the basic functions of something that modern PC users take for granted; the mouse. This is where Minesweeper and Solitaire reared its ugly, counter-productive head...

Invented by Robert Donner and Curt Johnson, two Microsoft employees, Minesweeper has been installed with every Microsoft Windows since Windows 3.1 in March 1992 and has been used to waste time in offices all over the globe. Minesweeper, for those estate agents who are unsure, is a game where a tiled board hides 'mines', that when clicked on, end the game. The aim of the game is to left click on all the spaces between the mines and 'flag' (by right clicking) possible mines.

The roots of Solitaire's history cannot be exactly pinpointed. It is known to have become popular in France around the 19th Century and then spread to the UK and the US in the end of that century. Again, for those estate agents who are unsure, the aim of Solitaire is to sort 7 increasing sizes of card piles (the first pile containing 1 card to the 7th pile containing 7cards) into the 4 different suits in ascending order with the remaining deck of cards.

Countless office hours have been whittled away on these games. In fact in 2006, one man was fired by the Mayor of New York City (Michael Bloomberg) after he saw an open game of Solitaire on the man's work computer. But was the purpose of these two games to reduce the worldwide productivity? One article entitled 'The most successful game ever: a history of Minesweeper' suggests not.

The article suggests that the two games were intentionally built to train or educate users to fully utilise the mouse. Minesweeper was designed to help users master the point-and-click element (users have to point and click to a particular square they believe to be a space or a mine) and solitaire was designed so that users could become skilled at dragging and dropping cards from one point of the screen to another. Both of these functions are now used in everyday for clicking on buttons or dragging and dropping files from one place to another.

Even today these basic functions are used in modern estate agent websites. Take the example of embedded and enhanced Google maps on one of Resource Techniques estate agent websites:



Users and estate agents use the point-and-click function to not only choose the local amenities that they want displayed but also to click on a house that they will be interested in. They also use the drag and drop function to navigate around the Google map to see the houses for sale in the surrounding area. Functions like these are integrated into everyday life without users and estate agents even realising. Maybe the next time you are on an estate agent website and using enhanced Google maps, you'll think of Minesweeper and Solitaire.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Point and click and drag and drop is now second nature to users.'

Troy Stanley continues, Simplistic features, like the enhanced Google Maps with local amenities on estate agent websites, are completely user friendly. Users are able to view a properties location and surrounding points of reference in Map, Satellite and Hybrid view from a simple click.

'An Estate agent website hosting online properties has evolved. They are no longer a long list of properties with limited amount of information; they are places where users can users can view high resolution photos, receive email alerts, print high quality property particulars in a pdf format, see embedded EPCs and HIPs and even view from the property from a satellite to viewing it on the street.' - Troy Stanley.

Resource Techniques specialises in web sites for estate agents, including website design for estate agents, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for estate agents and in-house software for estate agents. contact us on our Twitter profile, Facebook Page or through our contact page. Resource Techniques also provides a free, no obligations website review.