We Updated Search. You Commented. We Listened.

 

A few weeks ago, we updated the home shopping search experience on Zillow with the intent to give our users better shopping tools to find the home of their dreams. We added a more usable map area, added keyword search to the list of filters, and also changed the format of the list so that the map stays in view when you scroll through the homes.

No one has ever accused us of being complacent; we are constantly working to improve the Zillow site, and we’re certainly willing to take risks and learn from our mistakes.

SEATTLE and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Zillow.com® and Yahoo!® Real Estate (http://realestate.yahoo.com) today launched an exclusive partnership that brings together the two sites and creates the largest real estate network on the web, according to comScore® Media Metrix®(1) Zillow's sales force now sells local advertising across both sites, and the 4 million for-sale listings on Zillow now also appear on Yahoo! Real Estate. Zillow® and Yahoo! Real Estate announced plans for the partnership in July 2010.

Just in time for the buying season, we’ve upgraded our home shopping experience to make it easier than ever to find the home of  your dreams on Zillow.  Starting today, we’re giving our 13+ million monthly visitors on Zillow new tools and features to help them search for homes for sale and for rent.

Heads up: if you’re a fan of the Zillow iPad app (the # 1 real estate app on iPad), some of these changes may look familiar. That’s because we borrowed heavily from the design of the Zillow on iPad app whose design and functionality helps simplify the shopping experience on Zillow.

Here are some of the ways we are making it easier for you to shop for homes:

BIGGER MAP, BETTER INTERACTION

• You’ll notice the map is bigger which means we can show you more homes on one page.
• You can now easily scroll through the list of for-sale homes that match your search criteria with the map always in view.
• It’s all about location, right? Click on a home on the map and it automatically highlights on the search results list, and vice versa.

KEYWORD SEARCH

• Now there’s the ability to search for homes based on the special criteria that matter to you. You’ve always wanted a deck or a porch with a view? A gourmet kitchen or an open-floor plan?  Is a fenced yard a must-have for your pooch?  The new keyword filter search brings you one step closer to finding your dream home (see below).

UPDATED SEARCH RESULTS VIEWS

• List view: It’s now easier to sort and compare homes by price, Zestimate® home value, beds, baths, year built, etc.  For a deeper search, we’ve added filters such as  price per square foot, neighborhood, monthly payment, property type, and even property tax.
• Gallery view: Switch from the list view to gallery view to see photos of homes side-by-side.  Looking at the pretty pics in the gallery view may help you better determine which homes are of most interest.
• Bonus – when you click through to a Home Details Page, the list or gallery view remain at the bottom of the page. This means you can quickly and easily compare individual homes that match your search criteria with a single click.

Move, Inc. MSN Network is the largest real estate network according to everyone but Zillow

By Benn Rosales on November 8, 2010 | 11 Responses

This Sunday from New Orleans, we broke the story regarding questionable Zillow claims (via collateral produced by Zillow as ComScore data) being passed around the halls of the 2010 National Association of Realtors trade show floor. The claim in question was Zillow and Yahoo! real estate network being the “Largest Real Estate Network in the World” above and beyond Move Inc./MSN real estate network by nearly 6.4 million unique visitors. We’ve never disputed Zillow/Yahoo! traffic claims, only their representation of competitor traffic, and that of being the largest real estate network.

(This is a followup story to “Zillow dupes Realtors, investors and consumers with flawed claims.”)

Immediately, we noted the Zillow claim that the Move Inc. traffic stats included the 6.4 million uniques when according to other sources, it had not. Zillow’s CRO, Greg Schwartz responded that his contact at ComScore had verified the Zillow numbers to be accurate and requested a retraction- we decided to take it a step further and actually just settle the matter once and for all… who is the largest real estate network?

We went directly to ComScore (the source of both networks’ claims), and simply asked for an independent analysis (specifically avoiding any possibility of tricky math) of what is called deduplicated or “unduplicated” traffic (a fancy word for unique visitors) and the following graph is fact, according to Sr. Director, Industry Analysis Andrew Lipsman (well, we made the graph, he gave us the numbers). We also took it beyond that to show not only July, but also September numbers to settle the old versus new data controversy as well, and here is what we found…

What’s most interesting is that Move Inc. is not only larger, but from July to September (60 days) Move Inc. with MSN Real Estate actually grew 1.8 million uniques or 10.7% while Zillow and Yahoo! only inched up around 200k, or 1.3%.

The bottom line is that we want an apples to apples comparison and we’ve delivered one, however, Zillow’s Schwartz is still “reluctant to concede” any problems with their numbers. When we spoke to Schwartz by phone, he insisted that he had verified with ComScore Sr. Sales Manager, Jill Leedom that their numbers were on par and their flyer compared apples to apples, and went as far as emailing AgentGenius the very carefully worded statement from Leedom as follows…

Attached are two reports for September 2010:
1. Audience Duplication Report for Yahoo! Real Estate + Zillow: 14.458 Million UVs
2. Key Measures report for [P] Move Network: 13.398 Million UVs
Per these Media Metrix Reports, the data for Zillow is rock solid and correct. Zillow’s intent was to point out the one included URL”realestate.msn.realtor.com” and not the entire MSN Real Estate Category.
ComScore Sr. Sales Manager, Jill Leedom

You’ll note this email does not address the July numbers that are in dispute, and you will also notice the difference in reports filed. One report is a Duplication report, and the other is a Key measures report where Ledomm clearly states, “Zillow’s intent was to point out the one included URL”realestate.msn.realtor.com” and not the entire MSN Real Estate Category.” (emphasis ours)

Clearly, Zillow is selling its partnership with Yahoo! real estate, and enthusiastically created collateral to sell their new value proposition, but failed to compare apples to apples. We personally don’t believe they had malicious intent, it is our suspicion that apples (Audience Duplication Report showing Zillow/Yahoo! in a flattering light) were compared to oranges (Key Measures reports showing everyone but Zillow/Yahoo! in a less flattering light) which Schwartz will not confirm as a possibility. However, Move, Inc. and it’s MSN partners did compare apples to apples and they can, because they simply are the largest real estate network.

Does this mean it will last forever? This remains to be seen. The fact is that Move, Inc. and its competitors need one another to continue to push the envelope forward in technology. Zillow combined with Trulia and other players in the space have pushed traditional to become untraditional, rethink longterm strategies, build new alliances, and look beyond today in service offerings to Realtors and consumers. After all, 14.3 million uniques is not a number easily dismissed.

Google Reveals Top Real Estate Sites

June 1, 2010 by Alice Allan 

Google has just released a list of the 1,000 most visited websites on the Internet, and the highest-ranked website in the real estate category is China’s soufun.com.

Overall, soufun.com came in at number 141 on the list, which is based on unique visitor numbers as measured by Google Ad Planner. soufun.com had 18,000,000 unique visitors, a reach of 1.2 percent, and 250,000,000 page views for the month of April 2010.

Google has classified a number of other websites in the “real estate” and “rentals and referrals” categories, including China’s koubei.com, which came in at 398th place, and the Ukraine’s yandex.ua in 698th place. However, the two websites focused specifically on real estate to make the list are both from the US.

realtor.com came in at 786th place, with 5,100,000 unique visitors, 0.3 percent reach, and 340,000,000 page views. In 934th place was zillow.com with 4,200,000 unique visitors, 0.3 percent reach, and 310,000,000 page views.

The number one website on the list was facebook.com with 540,000,000 unique visitors and a reach of 35.2 percent. Google says the list excludes adult sites, ad networks, domains that don’t have publicly visible content or don’t load properly, and certain Google sites.

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1. Google Reveals Real Estate “Vision”

   Since Google first began adding real estate listings to Google Maps in mid-2009, the world of online real estate has been monitoring the company's every move. Each upgrade brought more speculation on how Google was planning to change things for property portals, real estate agents, and property hunters. Now, we have a clearer idea of where Google is headed....

2. Real Estate Added to Google Maps – What it Means for Australian Property Portals

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3. Google Real Estate in Europe – What is All the Fuss About? Lessons from Australia

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4. The Challenges for Google Real Estate

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5. Google Rumoured to be Hiring Online Real Estate Sales People

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Filed Under: Featured, Other News
Tagged: google, realtor.com, soufun.com, zillow.com

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