In what is a sign of things to come in real estate Google continues to add new features to search results and they come directly from Google Search. Do a search for ‘accommodation Hobart‘ or your area. You will notice results near the top coming from Google Local Business. This is a heavy sign of things to come, so make sure you get involved ASAP.

So what do you need to do?
1. Get you company Registered today on Google Maps Local Business Centre.
2. Get your Web Developer to Setup an XML Document of your Website.
3. Get your web developer to then Create a feed to Google Base. (not in Australia just yet but well worth it)
4. Submit XML Document to Google Webmaster.
5. Submit XML Document to Yahoo Site Explorer.

Getting yourself ready today will make it easy for you in the future. These sites are not going to kill of the need for the major portals. But they will spread your wings and show your vendors and clients that you are on top of your game. So do not wait until all of these things launch, get prepared now - you will not be disappointed!

In a new agreement with Google, Fairfax will use Google Adwords across its network of websites including Google Maps with a shared revenue model between the two parties. Google will also carry Fairfax videos across its video networks. It is believed that the two organisations are going to be looking at other opportunities to work together.

It seems also that Google Maps will be a large part of this union and we will look to see even more mapping coming into the way we search for goods and services in the future.

In my opinion this is a very smart move by Fairfax. It will know that there will be certain markets Google enters that it will clash with but at the same time Fairfax understands that being with them has far more advantages than trying to play against them.

Earlier today I posted that News Ltd had sold its stake in Google. Well I spoke to some people at REA and they knew nothing about it. So it is an April Fools joke. This was cleverly done by Nick who enjoys posting here and it seems enjoys making me look like an idiot! Even better hey!

Enjoy! And no the original article did not have Author as Avina Larf, so I am stupid but not that stupid!

In the past 18 months we have seen many of the large players trying to get into the local business directory market with little to no success. It was a ‘Hurry now Offer cannot last” scenario where businesses were told to spend $600+ per annum to have their name listed in a business directory, if you were one of the bright businesses and basically let it go - congratulations you just saved your money.

When it was announced I cringed and I was given a call by both of the major players; truelocal.com.au and mylocal.com.au and I basically made the telephone sales person back peddle a mile from their original pitch, unfortunately many Australians were fooled into thinking that this may be of benefit to them. Now it is 12 months on and many of these people will be due for renewal, I can see prices dropping all over the place.

Why? Well you can have all of this for FREE. Google Maps has been released in Australia for a few short months. All you need to do is:

1. Register: (you will need a free Google Gmail Account)
2. Edit your Details - make sure you include as much information as possible, have you logo ready, and some information about your company)
3. Wait about 10 days to receive a letter from Google with your code to verify your address. Then login and add your code and your listing will be up on the directory in no time.

So truelocal and mylocal are finished at these prices, and I am glad for it. I remember years ago WIN Television released a product called mydirectory.com.au which has since gone bust along with the quote ‘before its time’ from the owners. Yes, we are now all ready to put a virtual tour of our business on a directory for $700 bucks a year - pathetic!

Here is my message to big business. If you want to make money online provide real value to your target market and your audience first and the art of making money second then make sure you give them all a reason to go back, then employ people who actually know what they are doing.

Another good thing to come out of this is that Sensis will have to work a hell of allot harder to get people to renew their Yellow Pages and the price increases they have enjoyed over the years will soon be a thing of the past - all it takes is businesses to think. Think about what cost and the return these types of ads bring to your business.

I am not saying they do not have a place - but the value is just totally out of touch with the reality. So get onto Google Maps Australia, might not be much in the short term but it will be of benefit in the long term!

Without a doubt Google will soon be launching Google Base in Australia, a FREE classifieds site that will hurt sites like Ebay/Trading Post and many other classifieds websites that many of Australia largest companies have invested heavily in.

Google Base is NOT what I have been talking about in relation to Google launching a real estate portal world-wide, but it is a good start to get your listings on a global website.

So what do you need to do to make sure your agency is ready? In short standards based websites with a good database like the free and powerful MySQL and PostgreSQL databases are the easiest to configure. You can send feeds of data on a daily basis to Google Base as long as it does to exceed the daily quota (which only large portals would do). The second thing you will need to do is to define how your property data is defined.

A great start would be making sure your website is Google Sitemaps compliant. This basically is a new standard that Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines use to index your websites, it defines by XML every single page of your site and ensures that all of those pages are indexed in the search engines. If your website is sitemaps compliant the Google Sitemaps software will let you know of all of the errors of your site.

As an example this websites Google Sitemaps compliant page is http://business2.com.au/sitemap.xml and this is a document that describes all of the pages of this site. Google, Yahoo and MSN have search engine robots that crawl each and every page and index these results in their respective search engines, so if you have 200 property listings and another 40 pages of data on your site you would more than likely have 240 page links in this document.

If you do not know if your website is compliant, then it isn’t- this is because most web developers do not care to go to these lengths, but don’t be worried, if your site is developed correctly it should only take a day or so at most for your developer to get it set-up.

If you have predominantly flash website it may take a few days longer (maybe a week) and if you have a framed based website (like many REA/Just Listed/ or Domain have developed over the years, then forget it - it is impossible to do because the data is not yours as all pages just link to their websites.

What Now?
Google Base already has a specification for identifying data that you send to them. You can set it up just like you do when you send (if you send) data to Realestate.com.au. If you are a franchise ask your franchise technology arm if they are going to support this and ask them when it will be ready (more than likely they will just say yes to shut you up). The best way to do it is to automatically feed property data, so you do not have yet another website update your property data on.

Send this primer to your developers and get it ready. http://code.google.com/apis/base/starting-out.html

Why Not?
Google Base will not differentiate between a private seller and an agency, they do not care who the data comes from as long as it is legitimate and formatted correctly. Now if you do not want to be associated with a site that supports private advertising then this is not for you. But you could also say the same for Domain.com.au and as the market grows do not think REA will not also allow private advertising in the future - if Google launches a stand alone real estate search engine this will also allow private advertising and REA will be forced to open up as it may feel that it is being challenged - then again it may feel it will get more mileage out of promoting the fact that Google Real Estate supports private sellers and REA doesn’t - who knows?

Why?
Simply put - the exercise of getting your website Google Sitemaps compliant is only going to help you anyway, it will also help your web developer better understand the Internet and how it can serve its clients (you) better.

Finally
So, if you are getting your website re-developed then make sure it is 100% Google Sitemaps Compliant 100% - do not even think about not having it compliant as you will pay a heavy search engine price. If your web developer does not know how to do it - then dump them and get someone who does.

Here is another tip - please dump Flash altogether - its time has passed, I am sorry but it is annoying at best. If you must have Flash have only tiny pieces, never, ever, ever, ever, ever have a splash page.