Google is makes a serious play to woo Real Estate professionals, launching a dedicated page outlining their Google Tools for Real Estate Professionals.
They’re not shy about tooting their own horn on it either:
- Google has more real estate searches than all real estate specific web sites.
- Google is the most-used search engine for researching and purchasing real estate information and services.
- The Google Network drives more traffic to ColdwellBanker.com and Century21.com than all other search engines combined – more than 70% of each site’s traffic.
- The Google Network reaches over 80% of U.S. Internet users.
Some of the products they are highlighting include Google Base, Maps, Adwords and their 3D modeling tool Sketchup (for more on Sketchup, see my post It’s a Google world).
Until now, Google’s offerings have remained a little unwieldy and disparate, and this is largely due to its many acquisitions and its rapid roll out of new products. However, there is a visible shift underway at the search giant as it begins unifying its services. For consumers, it’s been most visible with the consolidation of Gmail, Calendar, Photos and most recently Docs & Spreadsheets.
This page is a similar attempt to start to pull together many separate elements and present them as a unified platform for small business owners. And it’s pretty clear. With all these services, Google is a becoming a very powerful destination for real estate professionals.
It’s also a little overwhelming. I’d like to see if there’s anyone out there who is making effective use of all the tools Google provides. But really that’s not the point. There’s enough in there for anyone to pick and choose and still have very effective results. The fact that most of them are free is even more startling.
For those of you attending the Inman Connect Conference next week, Google has a number of special “Maximizer” breakout sessions to attend. I’ve signed up for the 1:00pm Adwords session on Monday. See you there.
