Future of Real Estate Marketing » mapping http://www.futureofrealestatemarketing.com Just another WordPress weblog Sat, 09 Jul 2011 21:16:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Redfin Gives Up On Virtual Earth http://www.futureofrealestatemarketing.com/2008/12/11/redfin-gives-up-on-virtual-earth/ http://www.futureofrealestatemarketing.com/2008/12/11/redfin-gives-up-on-virtual-earth/#comments Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:29:32 +0000 Joel Burslem http://www.futureofrealestatemarketing.com/redfin-gives-up-on-virtual-earth REAL ESTATE AGENTS GET FREE ADVERTISING by being one of the first to rate a neighborhood. Market yourself LOCALLY online. Share your knowledge and get free advertising on NabeWise.com today!
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In an announcement on the Redfin Corporate Blog, the Seattle-based venture has abandoned Microsoft’s Virtual Earth maps in favor of Google’s offering. The reason? According to Redfin:

In the end, it was speed, speed, speed that convinced us to switch. In our worst case scenario of 500 pushpins on the map in IE6, GMaps is 385% faster.

A quick survey of Hitwise’s top real estate sites reveals VE is still preferred by most of the other destinations however – snagging 4 of the top 10 results.

1. Realtor.com (Virtual Earth)
2. Yahoo! Real Estate (Yahoo Maps)
3. Zillow.com (Virtual Earth)
4. ZipRealty (Virtual Earth)
5. Rent.com (Mapquest)
6. RE/MAX (Google Maps – Beta site also)
7. Homegain (Google Maps – through partnership with Homescape.com)
8. ServiceMagic (n/a)
9. HUD (n/a)
10. RealtyTrac (Virtual Earth)
11. Trulia.com (Google Maps)

What’s less clear is the preferred choice for brokerage web sites.

Does VE have a lock on residential real estate sites or is Google making in roads here? Any insight from RE web site developers would be appreciated… What’s the preferred mapping solution?

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