FWIW, I dont believe Google will be a national mls. They rely on content and all we have to do is distribute it to the point where its ubiquitous.

It could happen. Google could replace the MLS as we know it. Think about that

The upside for us with a standardized data feed is that we can use it to equalize the 3rd party players. if everyone has it, it decreases its value to any one player. I would like to see Bing, Google, Trulia, Zillow and whoever else have all of the listings as long as fair use is defined by us.
That eliminates the need for a national mls provider with any centralized control (good for all agents – not just those who belong to NAR}.

The downside is that buyer’s agents have to figure out how to make money if they don’t intend on having any skin in the game like a listing agent does. When I started 20 years ago, the listing was the key to success in this business, If you didn’t have any listings, you held open houses, but you didn’t expect to be top 10 in the office with a one-sided biz model. The Internet and IDX allowed us to take the open house concept to the next level, but it also opened the door to the 3rd party.

Standardized listing syndication allows the industry to regain control of the product they lost with IDX. Lead generators will have to figure out something new, or start listing properties, or find themselves paying referral fees for leads generated on the backs of the Russell Shaws of the world.

At the end of the day, it will raise the barrier to success and cull even more from the business. On the listing side, it will shift the emphasis from those who are primarily great marketers to those who are great agents. With marketing almost a default level playing field, representation will be how value is measured by the consumer.

Let’s take all your info at face value and take it a step further then. Try some predictions.

Lets assume that Google, Trulia, Zillow and xyz, are all fed a nightly updated aggregate feed of every MLS in the nation.

They make huge announcements, run TV ads, etc., and the public eventually knows these sites are the one stop place for all RE Listing Data.

If every listing must link back to the listing office, what happens to the listings with no web presence? Believe it or not, there is a real percentage there.

Also, if this link-back is not a requirement, what does a user get when he clicks the red dot?

Do all these National MLS sites try to capture the leads and sell them to agents, aka HomeGain?

Going on, what’s left for folks like me and you and others that are in the lead generation game?

You stated Googles biz model, and I fully agree. But if every red dot links to a competitor of mine then why do I want to run ads on Google at all? That seems like just too much competition.

I’ve then got to pay for ad space beside the map with the red dots and each dot is a competitor of mine.

Ooff!!

Google wants accurate data and has been right there with other 3rd party entities like Trulia and Zillow trying to get an industry wide data distribution standard in place that would be used by everyone for syndication. Bad news for lead generators, but good news for listing agents.

This dovetails with Google’s stated philosophy (Eric Schmidt) that the brand is important – if you Google Marriott you should get Marriott and not an affiliate. They can accomplish that in real estate with Google Base and a standardized RETS feed. Its not displacing the local MLS, but repurposing the information they get from the MLS and monetizing it with ads. That is the biz model – take all the content they can get and monetize it with ads, as ad revenue was responsible for almost all of their $22 billion in revenue last year.

The #1 issue for the RE biz is understanding that since we can’t put the mls data back under lock and key, we have to figure out how to syndicate it properly. Once the power players understand this (and Google is doing their best to explain it to them one big broker at a time), we will start to see more of a coordinated change. I believe this is one reason why NAR didnt act decisively on the mls indexing. I believe there are a few who clearly understand the R.com problem and know that sometimes not acting decisively is a wiser choice than making the wrong decision for the long term.

I noticed a week or two ago that in my area, if you zoom in far enough on a Google map, you get a light grey outline of the land lot.

Of use only to real estate, I would think.

Hmmmm..