Google is set to launch a property dimension to its UK mapping system.
The new service will allow both estate agents and private sellers to put their property as an overlay on Google Maps.
The plans were outlined at a conference called Estate Agency Events last week, although Google has declined to give official confirmation.
Shares in the property portal Rightmove fell more than 10% as news emerged, the sharpest faller in the FTSE 350 index of companies for the day.
The new service is expected to launch next year and would be similar to a service Google launched in Australia.
Sarah Beeny
Sarah Beeny says Google will level the property playing field
That site allows estate agents to list properties for free, with pictures taken from its Street View service and listing details on a map.
Speaking to BBC News, Edward Mead - sales director for Douglas & Gordon estate agents - said that the new system would be a win-win situation for both Google and estate agents.
"The technology to do this is already in place and estate agents are a little busier these days, although transactions are still fifty per cent down on what they once were.
"So this service, which is free, will appeal to estate agents' cost-cutting nature and given that sixty per cent of agents are one-off traders, this will have serious appeal."
Mr Mead said that Google's head of property and classified team, Ben Wood, briefed 30 of England's top estate agents at Estate Agency Events last week, telling them everything about the system, other than an official launch date.
'Hurt estate agents'
But Sarah Beeny, who presents Channel 4's Property Ladder and also runs her own home sales property site Tepilo, told BBC News that the service could well damage estate agents in the long run.
"It will hurt estate agents and it will hurt property sites like Rightmove.
"If it does what Google says it will, then it brings the buyer and seller closer together and that could mean removing blocks in the way, and that could mean no longer having to pay extortionate fees to estate agents.
"It will certainly blow Rightmove out of the water. You can only get your property listed on that site if you are an estate agent - what Google will do is level the playing field and they are doing it for free," she said.
For sale signs
The site would directly link property buyers with vendors
The news shook traders on the London Stock Exchange. At one point, shares in online property portal Rightmove fell by 13% over concern about competition from the world's biggest search engine, although a late afternoon rally saw them close 10% down at £4.95 a share.
The firm remained bullish, despite the news.
Speaking to BBC News, the company's commercial director, Miles Shipside, said his business was still strong and the site was still getting lots of traffic.
"It remains to be seen what actually happens," he said.
"Google is a big name, but they don't always manage to follow things through on a local level.
"We only list property with estate agents due to UK legislation. Agents offer very good value and charge very competitive rates compared to the rest of the world.
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Critical Local Search Factors To Pay Attention To
Critical Local Search Factors To Pay Attention To
Chris Crum | Staff Writer |Webpronews
Local Search is Changing and Getting More Competitive
Local search is only one sliver of the search marketing game, but it is an increasingly important one, and one that is changing rapidly. These days people are going to the web to find local businesses, sometimes more than even the phone book. Having a presence in local search is imperative for any small business, but just as imperative is being able to compete for visibility.
There is a good discussion taking place in our WebProWorld forum on the topic of local search. If you have any insight, you can contribute there or comment on this article for other WebProNews readers to see.
There are a lot of variables to consider when mapping out (no pun intended) your local search marketing efforts. Jeff Howard at Search Engine Guide has a very informative piece about such variables that search engines, and Google specifically employ when returning local search results to users.
"They have variables such as size of the map, and definition of a region's center that combine with trust, a citation, or sometimes what I call 'sureness factors' to determine what businesses should be recommended," he says. More specifically, the variables Howard is talking about are:
1. The size of the area as defined by the keyword search, or map space being viewed.
2. Google's sureness that in fact there is a business at the listed address doing what it says.
3. How Google defines the region's center, either by keyword or map parameters like zoom level.
Howard goes into some quite interesting examples of the variables at work.
Traditional Marketing Vs. Social Marketing - Click Here Now
It's not just about how the search engines define local results though. Businesses should also take into account how users/customers define them. Your business may be so many miles away from a user's location, but other variables can factor into this as well. Neighborhoods may matter to users. Obstacles like rivers, for example, may matter. Maponics CEO Darrin Clement made some good points on this subject in a recent interview with WebProNews.
As it stands right now, there are a number of measures businesses can take to help users find them in local search. Howard offers the following tips to let Google and other mapping search engines know where you're located:
- Have your address listed with major data providers.
- Claim your listing at the local business center.
- Have reviews either at Google or elsewhere.
- List your business in the proper categories once it's been claimed.
Search specialist Bruce Clay recently shared some further local search tips in another WebProNews interview. One particularly important tip he shared involved getting local people to link to your content. It helps if you have content that is actually localized.
Bruce also aimed to debunk some local SEO myths in that interview, and one of those is that local SEO is cheaper than SEO on a broader scale. He basically noted that just because a site's target audience is smaller, SEO is still SEO, and essentially the same work is involved when it comes to fixing a site and optimizing it. That's just something to keep in mind.
That said, SEO may still be SEO when it comes to the effort that goes into it, but just because your site is optimized well for regular search, does not mean that your local search presence should take a back seat. Even if your site ranks well organically, Google may be pushing it further down the page, simply because of the search engine's use of Universal search, which for many queries that yield local results, will simply return a set of local results, which are often near the top of the listings. This is pulled from a separate index. This topic was discussed in a quite interesting interview we had with Brian Combs, who founded local SEO firm ionadas local.
The new redesign of search results pages that Google has been testing could have important implications for local search. As some have pointed out, the interface involved with this redesign alters the presentation of local universal results. It only shows five results as opposed to the seven that Google currently shows.
"In the new UI, the map is now wider, the local listings are shown below the Map and an obvious pin to a Map centric view is visible along the left menu," notes local search blogger Mike Blumenthal. "In an of itself, the change means more SEO competition for fewer spots. Whether the change will drive more people into Maps is unclear as highlighted Map pin is offset by fewer links into Maps."
He also provides an interesting look at what this possible new interface could mean in connection with Google's local listing ads for businesses that the company is also testing.
Doing well in local search means much more than simply having a listing in Google Maps. Local search is a competitive and increasingly critical space of the web that local businesses need to take seriously. Take into account the rise of the mobile web, which is only going to greatly increase in consumer use, and local plays that much more of a role in getting customers to your business.
Chris Crum | Staff Writer |Webpronews
Local Search is Changing and Getting More Competitive
Local search is only one sliver of the search marketing game, but it is an increasingly important one, and one that is changing rapidly. These days people are going to the web to find local businesses, sometimes more than even the phone book. Having a presence in local search is imperative for any small business, but just as imperative is being able to compete for visibility.
There is a good discussion taking place in our WebProWorld forum on the topic of local search. If you have any insight, you can contribute there or comment on this article for other WebProNews readers to see.
There are a lot of variables to consider when mapping out (no pun intended) your local search marketing efforts. Jeff Howard at Search Engine Guide has a very informative piece about such variables that search engines, and Google specifically employ when returning local search results to users.
"They have variables such as size of the map, and definition of a region's center that combine with trust, a citation, or sometimes what I call 'sureness factors' to determine what businesses should be recommended," he says. More specifically, the variables Howard is talking about are:
1. The size of the area as defined by the keyword search, or map space being viewed.
2. Google's sureness that in fact there is a business at the listed address doing what it says.
3. How Google defines the region's center, either by keyword or map parameters like zoom level.
Howard goes into some quite interesting examples of the variables at work.
Traditional Marketing Vs. Social Marketing - Click Here Now
It's not just about how the search engines define local results though. Businesses should also take into account how users/customers define them. Your business may be so many miles away from a user's location, but other variables can factor into this as well. Neighborhoods may matter to users. Obstacles like rivers, for example, may matter. Maponics CEO Darrin Clement made some good points on this subject in a recent interview with WebProNews.
As it stands right now, there are a number of measures businesses can take to help users find them in local search. Howard offers the following tips to let Google and other mapping search engines know where you're located:
- Have your address listed with major data providers.
- Claim your listing at the local business center.
- Have reviews either at Google or elsewhere.
- List your business in the proper categories once it's been claimed.
Search specialist Bruce Clay recently shared some further local search tips in another WebProNews interview. One particularly important tip he shared involved getting local people to link to your content. It helps if you have content that is actually localized.
Bruce also aimed to debunk some local SEO myths in that interview, and one of those is that local SEO is cheaper than SEO on a broader scale. He basically noted that just because a site's target audience is smaller, SEO is still SEO, and essentially the same work is involved when it comes to fixing a site and optimizing it. That's just something to keep in mind.
That said, SEO may still be SEO when it comes to the effort that goes into it, but just because your site is optimized well for regular search, does not mean that your local search presence should take a back seat. Even if your site ranks well organically, Google may be pushing it further down the page, simply because of the search engine's use of Universal search, which for many queries that yield local results, will simply return a set of local results, which are often near the top of the listings. This is pulled from a separate index. This topic was discussed in a quite interesting interview we had with Brian Combs, who founded local SEO firm ionadas local.
The new redesign of search results pages that Google has been testing could have important implications for local search. As some have pointed out, the interface involved with this redesign alters the presentation of local universal results. It only shows five results as opposed to the seven that Google currently shows.
"In the new UI, the map is now wider, the local listings are shown below the Map and an obvious pin to a Map centric view is visible along the left menu," notes local search blogger Mike Blumenthal. "In an of itself, the change means more SEO competition for fewer spots. Whether the change will drive more people into Maps is unclear as highlighted Map pin is offset by fewer links into Maps."
He also provides an interesting look at what this possible new interface could mean in connection with Google's local listing ads for businesses that the company is also testing.
Doing well in local search means much more than simply having a listing in Google Maps. Local search is a competitive and increasingly critical space of the web that local businesses need to take seriously. Take into account the rise of the mobile web, which is only going to greatly increase in consumer use, and local plays that much more of a role in getting customers to your business.
Gasta Tech News: Bing adds rich maps to search results
SAN FRANCISCO--Microsoft's Bing took a major step forward Wednesday in adding rich mapping and image data to its search engine, but until it assembles more data, pretty pictures aren't enough to beat the Google Maps juggernaut.
Bing Maps Beta was released during a presentation at Microsoft's offices here. It's a Silverlight-based application that runs inside Bing Maps and adds Microsoft's version of Google Street View--called Streetside--to Bing Maps, as well as enhanced "bird's eye" images that let you swoop over cities.
I spent some quality time Wednesday afternoon with the new Bing Maps Beta, zooming through the streets of San Francisco and New York and testing out various searches. The best part about Bing Maps Beta--by far--are the rich transitions between high-resolution street-level or bird's-eye view photos as you move around a city, making it feel like you're actually driving down the road.
Microsoft's Streetside cameras have yet to make it down Amphitheater Parkway to Google's headquarters, and still haven't mapped an awfully large portion of the San Francisco Bay Area, not to mention the heartland.
(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)
Unfortunately, that's also the worst part; you'll have to download Microsoft Silverlight to make the rich imagery come alive (although you can still use Bing Maps without it), and 10 minutes of poking around with the application put a noticeable drain on system resources. If I left the window open, but didn't do anything in Bing Maps, my activity monitor dropped back to a moderate pace, only to max out again once I started playing with the Streetside feature or scrolling around a map.
But what Microsoft has assembled is impressive. The images are high-quality, and the location fixes are quite precise. The bird's-eye views have been improved with more perspective on roads hidden by buildings and name prominent buildings right on the map.
Scrolling around a city in bird's-eye view also allows you to view geotagged picture galleries created with Microsoft Photosynth. Click the little blue Streetside man (Google's little Street View man is orange) to choose between Streetside or Photosynth views, and if you click on a green icon in a given location, you are presented with photo galleries shot of the location. You can check out exhibits in museums such as New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, zooming into the building from the bird's-eye view.
Clicking on one of the green icons surrounding the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will bring up Microsoft Photosynth galleries of exhibits and the terrain around the building.
(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)
Microsoft is launching Bing Maps Beta with Streetside coverage of about 100 metropolitan areas in the U.S., but it's really only useful for traveling or searching medium-size cities or larger; suburban data is quite light. And even within cities such as San Francisco, Streetside is limited to essentially the downtown areas. Microsoft representatives said Wednesday they plan to add more data as soon as possible, but it could take quite a while.
A more generic search for a city or town such as San Francisco within Bing Maps Beta brings up a Wikipedia article on the city, weather information, and links to Photosynth galleries on the left hand side of the page alongside a map of the area. Clicking on "more details" brings up links to more photos, local news and "popular landmarks," although Microsoft should probably rethink the listing of the Port of Oakland as a popular San Francisco landmark.
Search for a specific address, such as CNET's downtown San Francisco office on 2nd Street, and Bing Maps Beta provides helpful icons to bars, restaurants, gas stations, and other locations within a given radius when you click on the "What's Nearby" icon.
It's pretty easy to get directions between two given locations, such as Microsoft Research's Mountain View, Calif., labs and CNET's downtown San Francisco headquarters. Bing lacks Google Maps' nice addition of Street View photos of each turn--since it doesn't have nearly that much data--but makes up a little bit of the gap with a helpful "if you reach X street, you've gone too far" reminder at the end of the journey and also listing prominent landmarks at certain turns.
Bing Maps Beta had plenty of suggestions for things to do around CNET's downtown San Francisco offices, but I had to zoom in very far to find my favorite bar. Maybe that's a good thing.
(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)
Microsoft has an awfully long way to go before it can duplicate the reams of Street View data that Google has assembled, as seen with its directions feature. Its rival certainly noticed Microsoft's announcement Wednesday, putting out a blog post of its own highlighting the fact that it has added Street View images of Sea World and second-rate New England learning institution Boston University. (Go Eagles)
At the moment, Google Maps has Bing beat when it comes to speed and comprehensive data. In addition, Google also surfaces some of the same helpful data, such as photo galleries and even videos.
Bing, however, offers a much richer look at the world. It does this at the expense of performance, but it presents a credible alternative to Google Maps for travelers and residents of major cities.
Bing Maps Beta was released during a presentation at Microsoft's offices here. It's a Silverlight-based application that runs inside Bing Maps and adds Microsoft's version of Google Street View--called Streetside--to Bing Maps, as well as enhanced "bird's eye" images that let you swoop over cities.
I spent some quality time Wednesday afternoon with the new Bing Maps Beta, zooming through the streets of San Francisco and New York and testing out various searches. The best part about Bing Maps Beta--by far--are the rich transitions between high-resolution street-level or bird's-eye view photos as you move around a city, making it feel like you're actually driving down the road.
Microsoft's Streetside cameras have yet to make it down Amphitheater Parkway to Google's headquarters, and still haven't mapped an awfully large portion of the San Francisco Bay Area, not to mention the heartland.
(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)
Unfortunately, that's also the worst part; you'll have to download Microsoft Silverlight to make the rich imagery come alive (although you can still use Bing Maps without it), and 10 minutes of poking around with the application put a noticeable drain on system resources. If I left the window open, but didn't do anything in Bing Maps, my activity monitor dropped back to a moderate pace, only to max out again once I started playing with the Streetside feature or scrolling around a map.
But what Microsoft has assembled is impressive. The images are high-quality, and the location fixes are quite precise. The bird's-eye views have been improved with more perspective on roads hidden by buildings and name prominent buildings right on the map.
Scrolling around a city in bird's-eye view also allows you to view geotagged picture galleries created with Microsoft Photosynth. Click the little blue Streetside man (Google's little Street View man is orange) to choose between Streetside or Photosynth views, and if you click on a green icon in a given location, you are presented with photo galleries shot of the location. You can check out exhibits in museums such as New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, zooming into the building from the bird's-eye view.
Clicking on one of the green icons surrounding the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will bring up Microsoft Photosynth galleries of exhibits and the terrain around the building.
(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)
Microsoft is launching Bing Maps Beta with Streetside coverage of about 100 metropolitan areas in the U.S., but it's really only useful for traveling or searching medium-size cities or larger; suburban data is quite light. And even within cities such as San Francisco, Streetside is limited to essentially the downtown areas. Microsoft representatives said Wednesday they plan to add more data as soon as possible, but it could take quite a while.
A more generic search for a city or town such as San Francisco within Bing Maps Beta brings up a Wikipedia article on the city, weather information, and links to Photosynth galleries on the left hand side of the page alongside a map of the area. Clicking on "more details" brings up links to more photos, local news and "popular landmarks," although Microsoft should probably rethink the listing of the Port of Oakland as a popular San Francisco landmark.
Search for a specific address, such as CNET's downtown San Francisco office on 2nd Street, and Bing Maps Beta provides helpful icons to bars, restaurants, gas stations, and other locations within a given radius when you click on the "What's Nearby" icon.
It's pretty easy to get directions between two given locations, such as Microsoft Research's Mountain View, Calif., labs and CNET's downtown San Francisco headquarters. Bing lacks Google Maps' nice addition of Street View photos of each turn--since it doesn't have nearly that much data--but makes up a little bit of the gap with a helpful "if you reach X street, you've gone too far" reminder at the end of the journey and also listing prominent landmarks at certain turns.
Bing Maps Beta had plenty of suggestions for things to do around CNET's downtown San Francisco offices, but I had to zoom in very far to find my favorite bar. Maybe that's a good thing.
(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)
Microsoft has an awfully long way to go before it can duplicate the reams of Street View data that Google has assembled, as seen with its directions feature. Its rival certainly noticed Microsoft's announcement Wednesday, putting out a blog post of its own highlighting the fact that it has added Street View images of Sea World and second-rate New England learning institution Boston University. (Go Eagles)
At the moment, Google Maps has Bing beat when it comes to speed and comprehensive data. In addition, Google also surfaces some of the same helpful data, such as photo galleries and even videos.
Bing, however, offers a much richer look at the world. It does this at the expense of performance, but it presents a credible alternative to Google Maps for travelers and residents of major cities.
Gasta Tech Update: Microsoft and Yahoo have closed the deal.
Gasta sources say WebProNews received an email from a Yahoo representative saying that they have "finalized and executed the definitive Search and Advertising Services and Sales Agreement and License Agreement in accordance with the letter agreement announced in July."
Statements from the two companies are as follows:
“Microsoft and Yahoo! believe that this deal will create a sustainable and more compelling alternative in search that can provide consumers, advertisers and publishers real choice, better value, and more innovation.
“Yahoo! and Microsoft welcome the broad support the deal has received from key players in the advertising industry and remain hopeful that the closing of the transaction can occur in early 2010.”
Original Article: Kara Swisher of Boomtown, who is normally a pretty reliable source of industry scoops, is reporting that Yahoo and Microsoft may be very close to finally signing their much-anticipated search and advertising deal. According to Swisher, though she has not received confirmation from either party, the two companies may have their agreement in place by the end of the week.
"If all goes well, the various Microsoft and Yahoo execs–who have been ferreted away over the last weeks busy dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s on the massive document–could even turn in their deal homework to their bosses for signature by the end of the week," says Swisher. She cites "sources close to the situation" as the basis of her lead.
The deadline for completing the agreement was October 27, but both companies basically chalked up the lack of completion to the size and complexity of the document. They want to make sure all of the details are in there and are clear.
The deal isn't just waiting on the two companies to finalize a document, though. It also requires the approval of a bunch of government regulators, and not just in the U.S.
"And, several sources said those government approvals are now nearing completion at the Justice Department, even though the Federal Trade Commission might still ask for more assurances on privacy issues related to online advertising and consumer data issues," writes Swisher. "International regulatory approval is another story, especially in Europe, which could further delay the implementation of the partnership, since it is unlikely the pair would move forward without clearance globally."
Statements from the two companies are as follows:
“Microsoft and Yahoo! believe that this deal will create a sustainable and more compelling alternative in search that can provide consumers, advertisers and publishers real choice, better value, and more innovation.
“Yahoo! and Microsoft welcome the broad support the deal has received from key players in the advertising industry and remain hopeful that the closing of the transaction can occur in early 2010.”
Original Article: Kara Swisher of Boomtown, who is normally a pretty reliable source of industry scoops, is reporting that Yahoo and Microsoft may be very close to finally signing their much-anticipated search and advertising deal. According to Swisher, though she has not received confirmation from either party, the two companies may have their agreement in place by the end of the week.
"If all goes well, the various Microsoft and Yahoo execs–who have been ferreted away over the last weeks busy dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s on the massive document–could even turn in their deal homework to their bosses for signature by the end of the week," says Swisher. She cites "sources close to the situation" as the basis of her lead.
The deadline for completing the agreement was October 27, but both companies basically chalked up the lack of completion to the size and complexity of the document. They want to make sure all of the details are in there and are clear.
The deal isn't just waiting on the two companies to finalize a document, though. It also requires the approval of a bunch of government regulators, and not just in the U.S.
"And, several sources said those government approvals are now nearing completion at the Justice Department, even though the Federal Trade Commission might still ask for more assurances on privacy issues related to online advertising and consumer data issues," writes Swisher. "International regulatory approval is another story, especially in Europe, which could further delay the implementation of the partnership, since it is unlikely the pair would move forward without clearance globally."
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