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Mediocre Data Dooms Google Maps-Real Estate Search
I was intrigued by the Google Maps-Real Estate service to the point that I wrote a post about it here and e-mailed information about it to my wife, who is a Realtor. Google Maps-Real Estate shows homes for sale, foreclosures and much more by integrating real estate sale information with Google Maps. But not for long, Steve Matthews notes on the Slaw blog, as Google announced on Friday that it is discontinuing the Maps-Real Estate Search feature on Feb. 11, 2011, due to “low usage.”
Google added in its announcement that "we recognize that there might be better, more effective ways to help people find local real estate information than the current feature makes possible. We’ll continue to explore this area."
In his post, Matthews states that it was difficult for Google to compete because it had a mediocre data set that could not "filter mapped properties by price, number of bedrooms, bathrooms or square footage." Google had hoped to get the data from real estate agents, Matthews says, but the agents "never broke ranks" and therefore managed to maintain control over some of their most important data.
Posted by Bruce Carton on February 1, 2011 at 05:14 PM | Permalink
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