Archive for the ‘Knowledge’ Category

Peter Ricci

Why your Future will be Multiple Portals

Okay, so you list with realestate.com.au or realenz, do you think that will be enough? Fast forward 10 years and I guarantee you will be sending your listings up to at least a dozen websites.

Why is this you may ask? In short one word. Google! Google will soon launch their FREE classifieds site in Australia and New Zealand and its name is Google Base. This will allow your company to list for FREE every single one of your listings and photography. The site will carry only basic data and then forward the user to your website for full listing information.

So how do I get to a dozen websites? Well everything Google does, Yahoo and MSN (Microsoft) do as well and this has happenned all over the world and will happen here in Australasia also.

The one thing that will catapult Google to the top is the fact that in America when you search Google for real estate in their popular search engine Google gives a set of drop downs to refine your results from their FREE classifieds website. This means that people searching for property will not have to go anywhere but Google for their real estate listings. There will also be a number of new real estate portals come on board, some good, some not so good, but you can be sure they will all be free once Google comes on board.

At Agentpoint we are already one step ahead of the rest and our systems already send our Agents property data to the US based Google Base, so we are ready lock stock and barrel for the Australian launch.

Peter Ricci

Why RSS is so important!

RSS Feeds are one of the big new technologies of the decade. For real estate agents understanding the platform that today’s agencies depend upon for their success is critical and that platform is the Internet.  RSS feeds are a big deal and by using this technology to engage buyers, renters and even vendors will mean you are one step ahead of your competition.
<blockquote>RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows these people to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from your sites that they are interested in.</blockquote>
RSS Feeds save time by users not needing to visit your website to keep up to date with all of your latest listings and news and media releases. If you want to learn more about RSS click here. If you want to subscribe to an RSS feeds you will need the latest free browser from Firefox (best on planet) or Internet Explorer 7.

Microsoft are also about to release its new Windows Live Mail Platform that includes its own feed reader and this will supersede Outlook Express. The Windows Vista Platform also has RSS feed reading as a new feature and this allow users to subscribe to content directly from the desktop.