Google Not Allowed To Index Real Estate Listings?

Will Google Really Be Prohibited From Indexing and Displaying Real Estate Listing Search Results?  Yes!

The Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors (MIBOR) has just enacted a policy that may have far reaching implications for buyers and sellers of real estate throughout the US.  MIBOR has ruled (and NAR seems to be backing them up) that search engines such as Google should not be allowed to index listing content from Agents' websites.  Doing so, they say, is the same as "scraping" and is an unauthorized use of proprietary real estate information.

Google Helps Buyers Find Homes

How wrong-headed can this ruling be?  If Google is not allowed to index real estate listings, then NO ONE will be able to search for homes for sale on the internet.  Is this really what we want?  The service Google provides is a great convenience to home buyers.  Home sellers are anxious to have their listings available anywhere and everywhere--especially on the internet.  Who then, benefits from this policy of not allowing Google to index real estate listings?  Again, NO ONE!

Thankfully, there has been a significant grass-roots effort to raise this issue to a national level and address the underlying problems inherent in this local decision.  Hopefully, we'll be able to correct the wrong thinking and make sure we have a national policy toward search engines that benefits everybody. 

For more information on this topic, please see the links section below.

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