Housing News
Microsoft Bing Stepping Up Innovation This Spring
Microsoft came to compete
Google maps have reigned for years now, but Microsoft’s Bing is competing in a meaningful way. Today, Bing announced a series of projects they’re working on for their spring release, noting that their “focus remains consistent – we want Bing to be the best place to help you make better decisions.”
This year so far, Bing has impressed us with their implementation of augmented reality into their maps and they are serious about competing with Google.
The changes coming:
- The first news item that excites us is that the “decision engine” will be adding reviews by the Foursquare community to their maps to help people make choices about locations in their own town and in cities they visit by visualizing data for consumers.
- Bing will be testing real time search this week which is huge, “for example, when you search for a publication such as the New York Times, Bing not only gives you quick access to specific sections of the destination website, but also provides the most popular shared links from that publication.”
- Another innovation is Bing’s alteration of search after realizing that 42% of their search sessions resulted in refining results. They will be testing out some new design concepts and “moving Quick Tabs functionality to the top of the page for 1-click access to our most robust, visual, and organized pages. We think this approach is a better way for Bing to anticipate user intent and adapt both the page and the results to help make faster, more informed decisions.”
What this means
Google has spent years focused on their algorithms and not much on their UI (user interface), but Bing shot out of the gates with a mentality that UI rules (since they already seemed confident about their iterative search functionality). Bing has a devoted page to recipes and just announced a devoted page to car sales and we suspect real estate is high on their priority list.
You’ll be hearing more about SEO to please Bing over the coming months as traffic levels show they are enjoying great traffic and likely will siphon off of Google as the Google interface remains stagnant and Bing focuses on the end user as more than just a list reader but as a “decision maker.”
AgentGenius is not affiliated with Bing or Foursquare
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Housing News
Average age of houses on the rise, so is it now better or worse to buy new?
With aging housing in America, are first-time buyers better off buying new or existing homes? The average age of a home is rising, as is the price of new housing, so a shift could be upon us.
The average home age is higher than ever
(REALUOSO.COM) – In a survey from the Department of Housing and Urban Development American Housing Survey (AHS), the median age of homes in the United States was 35 years old. In Texas, homes are a bit younger with the median age between 19 – 29 years. The northeast has the oldest homes, with the median age between 50 – 61 years. In 1985, the median age of a home was only 23 years.
With more houses around 40 years old, the National Association of Realtors asserts that homeowners will have to undertake remodeling and renovation projects before selling unless the home is sold as-is, in which case the buyer will be responsible to update their new residence. Even homeowners who aren’t selling will need to consider remodeling for structural and aesthetic reasons.
Prices of new homes on the rise
Newer homes cost more than they used to. The price differential between new homes and older homes has increased from 10 percent traditionally to around 37 percent in 2014. This is due to rising construction costs, scarcity of lots, and a low inventory of new homes that doesn’t meet the demand.
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Housing News
Are Realtors the real loser in the fight between Zillow Group and Move, Inc.?
The last year has been one of dramatic and rapid change in the real estate tech sector, but Realtors are vulnerable, and we’re worried.
Why Realtors are vulnerable to these rapid changes
(REALUOSO.COM) – Corporate warfare demands headlines in every industry, but in the real estate tech sector, a storm has been brewing for years, which in the last year has come to a head. Zillow Group and Move, Inc. (which is owned by News Corp. and operates ListHub, Realtor.com, TopProducer, and other brands) have been competing for a decade now, and the race has appeared to be an aggressive yet polite boxing match. Last year, the gloves came off, and now, they’ve drawn swords and appear to want blood.
Note: We’ll let you decide which company plays which role in the image above.
So how then, does any of this make Realtors the victims of this sword fight? Let’s get everyone up to speed, and then we’ll discuss.
1. Zillow poaches top talent, Move/NAR sues
It all started last year when the gloves came off – Move’s Chief Strategy Officer (who was also Realtor.com’s President), Errol Samuelson jumped ship and joined Zillow on the same day he phoned in his resignation without notice. He left under questionable circumstances, which has led to a lengthy legal battle (wherein Move and NAR have sued Zillow and Samuelson over allegations of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and misappropriation of trade secrets), with the most recent motion being for contempt, which a judge granted to Move/NAR after the mysterious “Samuelson Memo” surfaced.
Salt was added to the wound when Move awarded Samuelson’s job to Move veteran, Curt Beardsley, who days after Samuelson left, also defected to Zillow. This too led to a lawsuit, with allegations including breach of contract, violation of corporations code, illegal dumping of stocks, and Move has sought restitution. These charges are extremely serious, but demanded slightly less attention than the ongoing lawsuit against Samuelson.
2. Two major media brands emerge
Last fall, the News Corp. acquisition of Move, Inc. was given the green light by the feds, and this month, Zillow finalized their acquisition of Trulia.
…Click here to continue reading this story…
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rob | atlanta homes
March 27, 2010 at 8:14 am
Lani:
Good post. For the longest time, I ignored Bing until I noticed I was getting a lot of traffic from there. So I checked my rankings for a lot of my KWs on Bing and discovered I was page ONE for most of them. (vs page 486 on Google).
So it’s become my favorite underdog now and I’m rooting for Bing.
🙂
Lani Rosales
March 27, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Rob, that’s really great news- I suspect their algorithm is quite different (since the emphasis is on making a purchase decision), so I think in a year, many people will share your sentiment. Thanks for sharing!!