March 2008

Portals: Globrix leading the new challengers

Agents sign up to advertise on News International-backed site

THE portal marketplace is by no means a static one as many agents are finding out by the number of places in which they now see their properties appearing.

In the ‘good old days’, the portals used to approach agents and come to them with a proposition to get you to add your properties.

Some were for free — in the first instance — such as Rightmove and Assertahome, later known as Propertyfinder. Others charged from the outset — Findaproperty charged £1 per property per week.

Now the new generation are looking at alternative ways of generating revenue and not necessarily charging agents directly for doing so.

The latest to make a significant impact is Globrix — www.globrix.com. The site was first launched in November 2007 after being founded by two technology experts with expertise in the algorithmic search area.

They hit the headlines with announcement of a funding deal with News International and are now starting to make an impression in the marketplace.

Property is key to the success of any property site. If a site only has limited property stocks, visitors know they have to go elsewhere to complete their search.

The technology that Globrix employs enables them to search agent websites directly and extract the information — in much the same way as Yahoo and Google do in their search engine technology.

The way it is done is simple in that it is equivalent to a single user visiting and requesting a property every five seconds or so.

Once the property data is extracted the user can access it in many ways as the search engine technology allows the use of keyword searches.

This can be useful if you have certain immovable criteria and indeed when narrowing the search from a long list or a crowded map.

Of course, Globrix offers a map search and the search can easily be modified.

A simple slider bar at the top of the screen controls price but the really clever feature is the use of expandable alternative control buttons in the left hand bar.

As well as the usual control over numbers of bedrooms and bathrooms and type of home, the keyword feature allows many different search options — and the number that are available with the feature.

Station and school searches are easily done and clicking on the smaller box in the corner can move the map search.

I found it very easy to use, informative and, of course, it links directly to the agent site so one can contact the agent direct and get more information.

However, at present, there are no e-mail alerts for property searches and to check for new property one has to go back to the site.

The standard new property alerts of the portals are invaluable to a home hunter — especially in a fast-moving market.

It appears as if one has to register on each individual site and that is not what most home hunters want to do.

The link with News International — Rupert Murdoch's media giant which owns Sky, Fox and domestic newspapers The Sun, News of the World, The Times and The Sunday Times — is helping to promote the site and Globrix have just announced that some key London estate agents including Foxtons, Knight Frank and Savills have become lead advertisers in the banner column alongside the search results.

Competition in London means that agents are always seeking ways of standing out from others.

But traditionally it has been much more difficult to persuade provincial agents to increase their spend — and certainly the good agents of Harrogate, Exeter and Tunbridge Wells do not appear to have been persuaded yet!

In time, no doubt, they might and there may even be a race to take the two limited positions for estate agents.

At the moment, the shareholder agents from Rightmove are blocking Globrix from crawling their site.

That may prevent Globrix achieving their aim to become the number one site for property numbers although they are getting the Countrywide properties now they are no longer part of Rightmove.

Agents can block the crawlers if they want but most sites are actually optimised to let the search engines gather information. Very few deny access to Google and the like!

The real test will be whether Globrix can generate sufficient impact with users. At the moment they hardly register on the internet marketing measurer Comscore.

Others, however, are making progress. Nestoria have moved up the rankings significantly so maybe Globrix will be able to as well.

Nestoria hit the top 15 in December and with recent links with even more portal providers and their newly-launched white label partnerships with Channel4homes and The Independent, they seem to be making significant progress.

As with Globrix, there is no cost to the agents whose properties are advertised on the site.