Sir Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626) once said “Knowledge is Power”

Its nearly 2008 and even after 400 years things have not changed that much. Data is knowledge, therefore today, data is power.

Why is it then that agents put up with portals using our data for their own gains? The major portals have all done deals to provide our data to other companies. Domain sends the agents data it collects to APM and REA send it to RPData.

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Realestate.com.au has renewed its partnership with Ninemsn to continue to carry listings for an undisclosed period of time. Ninemsn obviously understood that carrying listings from MyHome and dumping REA would not be good for continuing its success.

“Both companies benefit from the extension of this agreement,” said realestate.com.au’s General Manager, Shaun Di Gregorio. “For us it means continued exposure to ninemsn’s audience of more than 8 million unique browsers.”

“The association with realestate.com.au fits with ninemsn’s strategy of partnering with category leaders,” said Jason Scott, Commercial Director, ninemsn. “It’s a win for our audience to have access to Australia’s most complete and popular real estate content.”

Well I know who it is NOT a win for - and that is MyHome as it continues to be a who cares website despite trying to woo agents with a new car (and a $2000 a year subscription) - might be worthwhile entering, odds are probably going to be about a 10% chance of success.
Full Press Releases Here

As for the millions of Australians that do not know how to change their home page from the default Ninemsn (loads with Internet Explorer by Default on all new computers in Australia) here is a quick primer.

Firefox
1. Go to a good website
2. Go to Tools/Options/Main
3. Change the Default Home Page

Internet Explorer
1. Go to a good website
2. Go to Tools/Internet Options/
3. Change the Default Home Page