Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Google's UK property portal now live

Rumoured aggregator arrives as expected.

A couple of weeks back, Pocket-lint covered the rumours that Google was in talks with various estate agents to launch a property aggregator that covers the UK. Well, those rumours have proved correct, and you can now search for property on Google Maps. To access it, click the "more" link at the top of the map and select "Real Estate".

Just like the identical service that Google offers in Australia, the property aggregator allows you to pick rent or sale, set upper and lower price points, and choose the number of bedrooms and bathrooms that you'd like, before displaying the results of your search in a list on the left panel and on the main map.

It's not yet clear what effect this will have on existing aggregators like Rightmove and Globrix, but if reports are accurate that Google is offering the service free to Estate Agents, then it could prove catastrophic, especially if the company begins to actively promote the offering.

Update: Upon further investigation, it seems like the service is only live in London for the time being. We'll keep an eye on the rest of the country and let you know when it rolls out further.

source

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