Why Google Maps Real Estate was dropped

| Web design

Why Google Maps Real Estate was dropped

 

Released in July last year, Google Maps Real Estate sent a shockwave throughout the property industry. All aflutter, many Estate Agents immediately desired to promote their properties mapping section of Google.

In another move less than two years later, Google have announced that they will be completely removing the service as of the 10th of February. The reason that Google dropped its Google Maps Real Estate service was simply down to a severe decline in traffic.

Announced in a Blog post, Google’s Brian McClendon stated “In part due to low usage, the proliferation of excellent property-search tools on real estate websites, and the infrastructure challenge posed by the impending retirement of the Google Base API (used by listing providers to submit listings), we’ve decided to discontinue the real estate feature within Google Maps on February 10, 2011.”

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, “Whilst this is quite a surprise move from Google, it underlines how property related websites are not just about listings. It simply boils down to sites that offer a great user experience – something that is engrained into every single of our Estate Agent websites.”

“User experience is our mantra here at Resource Techniques. It is no longer enough to only have a vast amount of property data and expect people to flock to your website in hordes. The user has to be the focal point when building any property service. After all, they will be the ones using the end product.”

“Without a rich user experience, people will not feel compelled to continually return. There is no doubt in my mind that a rich user experience is the make, or break, of any Estate Agent website.”

“Look at it this way, you wouldn’t go to a fairground if they only had the Teacup ride.” He added.

“Estate Agents do not take the chance. Make sure your website not only reaches the website benchmark, but soars completely over it.” Troy Stanley.

Looking back at Google’s announcement of the listing service, Estate Agents and property professionals started to question Rightmove’s throne and believed that it was a little bit of history repeating.