Jonathan - Yes, I can see how this would be super frustrating. So many agents don't realize this and the widgets are just making it worse. And, why would you actively send someone away from your site, and to another real estate site where they can find your competition.
BTW, I think that Google recently made an announcement that widgets should have no follow links and I believe they had already start to discount these, anyway.
PS: thx for your comment on our meetup today. I will definitely invite you to the next one (prob. Dec) and there is one tomorrow in Wilton CT at Dagny Eason's (you can find her on here). I just subscribed to your blog, too.
Jonathan, right now there is because they have different models; however I expect we'll see at least one merger/buyout by 2014.