Trulia, Yahoo and Zillow: Working together for you

Posted on February 12, 2008 by Darin Persinger

At the Trulia blog, it was announced that 3 of the biggest listing aggregators, Trulia, Zillow and Yahoo are teaming up to format a new standard for data feeds to make it easier for Real Estate company’s to syndicate their listings and get maximum internet exposure.

From the press release,

The data feed specification will be based on the XML format and
will comprise all the requisite components of a listing, such as
address, price, square feet, beds, baths, and additional descriptions
of the home. Where as today, brokers and listings providers would need
to create upwards of a dozen different formats for one listing, the
new standard model will significantly reduce the amount of time spent
preparing the content for distribution online.

This is quite an interesting event for real estate internet marketing. Realty Thoughtsblog has already called this The Year of The Listing. Think about it. A small 2 agent real estate brokerage should just as easily be able to get the same kind of internet exposure as a large 300 real estate agent company, with out having the to figure out the different techinical aspects of each listing aggregator.

Some other company’s that are involved in the new data standards format are Homes.com, Homescape, Oodle, Point2 Technologies, RealEstate.com, Vast.com, and vFlyer.

Anyone notice who is missing from this mix?

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6 Responses

  1. Ashish, on February 12th, 2008 at 7:58 pm Said:

    Clearly, you are referring to Craigslist being missing. FYI, Craigslist actually does have an API (or a ‘bulk lister’ as they call it).

    http://www.craigslist.org/about/bulk_posting_interface.html

    Anyway, I think Craigslist will soon be on its way out, though it has established quite a strangle hold on the online classifieds community. Kijiji is simply a clone of Craigslist that was slightly redesigned.

    I see the front runner as Oodle .. it has great technology, VC funding, and is cross functional, meaning that it has the possibility to attract as big of a following as Craigslist.

    In fact, I have my own classifieds startup called Metromole, but may soon decide to stop developing in recognition that Oodle has recently implemented the majority of the features that I was trying to introduce to the market first.

    http://alphathesis.wordpress.com
    http://www.metromole.com

    Reply
  2. Darin Persinger, on February 12th, 2008 at 8:55 pm Said:

    Ashish,

    Actually I was thinking of Google and their google base function. Craigslist is a good thought. Thanks for the thought and info.

    Reply
  3. Julie, on February 20th, 2008 at 12:59 pm Said:

    Hi Darin,

    Have you checked out http://www.propertymaps.com? I like their interface and the idea that they are working with the MLS, not trying to circumvent.

    What do you think?

    Reply
  4. James B, on February 25th, 2008 at 3:37 pm Said:

    New site that just launched, I heard they are trying to be the worldwide leader for real estate search, bringing everything together. We shall see about that!!
    They are coming out with a social network too. And user ratings/property ratings. Should be interesting to see if they bring it all together.

    Reply
  5. James B, on February 25th, 2008 at 3:43 pm Said:

    sorry, the site is beatyouthere.com

    Reply
  6. Darin Persinger, on March 5th, 2008 at 9:33 pm Said:

    James B. and Julie-

    Thanks for the info on this two new search sites. To be honest with you, I’m tired of all the real estate search sites and I don’t see anyone doing anything that new or that interesing to stand out from the rest.

    The real estate web is getting crowded and it just seems to be noise coming out now. Who and when will someone do something that will be mindblowing, that will alter the way a homebuyer searches for property?

    Reply

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