Google and Mircosoft Rooms with Realty Firm
Real estate market downturn creates strange bedfellows as brokerage sleeps with the enemy. The U.S. real estate market may be running out of steam, but the downturn may be helping to clear the air of mistrust between traditional realtors and the Internet community as two realty firms announced groundbreaking deals with Google and Microsoft.
Late Thursday, Prudential California/Nevada/Texas Realty, one of the largest real estate brokerages in the United States, said it will make its property listings available for search on Google, a watershed move for a major player in an industry that jealously guards its listing data.
In another air-clearing announcement, John L. Scott Real Estate, a Pacific Northwest-based realty company, said it will expand its use of Virtual Earth, Microsoft’s satellite and aerial imagery service, to home shoppers in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington.
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