online real estate marketing: It's A Google, Google World Out There (Still) - 09/26/07 02:24 AM
In case you needed any more proof, Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence service, reported last week that Google accounted for almost 64% of all US search engine queries for the month of August 2007.  While this is down a hair from July, Google outran its nearest competitor, Yahoo!, almost 3:1, with Yahoo! grabbing about 23% of the market. 
The next closest engines were MSN with just under 8% of the market and Ask.com with about 3-1/2%.
According to Hitwise, there are 48 other search engines out there, but their share of the market combined is less than 2%.
Real estate searches were not … (25 comments)

online real estate marketing: What?!? I Can Use My Competitor’s Name As A Search Engine Keyword??? - 09/05/07 03:28 PM

Breaking news in the world of search engine advertising -- it was announced late last week that the plaintiff in a four year old case against Google has agreed to drop its claim that Google abuses trademarks by allowing business rivals to buy ads that appear when consumers search for information on a particular business.
Under the practice, a search request by a consumer for a specific business, like American Airlines, triggers ads from competitors which appear in sponsored positions around the search results.  These ads appear because the rival companies include portions of the target business' name as keywords in their … (6 comments)

online real estate marketing: Should You Give Away Your Listings Content On Your Website? - 08/23/07 02:25 PM
There seems to be two distinct, diametrically opposed schools of thought out there among web developers about what agents should do with their listings information on their website.  In one corner is the group that advocates mandatory pre-registration before a visitor can see even a hint of listings information and, in the other corner, is the group that says, "hey, give it away because consumers will never register anyway."
I'm here on my soapbox to advocate for the Green Party.  OK, who could help dropping in a little political joke with all the politicos in the news right now, but I am perfectly serious when I tell you that there is another … (17 comments)