Comments on Future of Realty: The Devolution of the NAR National Database...

While Move.com does have vast experience in collec...

2008-11-17T08:17:00.000-08:00

While Move.com does have vast experience in collecting data and presenting it on consumer websites, it relies heavily on third party providers for it's data aggregation and related tasks (normalization, standardization, etc). Collabera (http://www.collabera.com/) does most of the heavy lifting for Realtor.com's MLS data aggregation efforts; obtaining data from MLSs via ftp and RETS, performing address correction and geocoding, normalizing it all into a digestable format; before handing it over to Realtor.com for display. I wouldn't necessarily define what they do as "experience in data aggregation", when another company is doing the majority of the complex work. Similarly, they rely on other aggregators for neighborhood data, school data, public records data, etc. One can argue they have vast experience in mashing up data from these different sources, which could make them qualified to develop and manage RPR. More importantly, they have a long established relationship with NAR, and their experience in dealing with all the related politics should be helpful.

I disagree Move.com is not experienced in data agg...

2008-11-14T06:58:00.000-08:00

I disagree Move.com is not experienced in data aggregation. That's what they do. Additionally, Move.com was the one and only site where MLS listing content could be co-mingled with listings from other MLSs. Most MLSs have had the rule that their listings could not be stored with other MLS listings. This rule is what made eNeighborhoods project with REMAX.com so amazing! eNeighborhoods was successfully able to keep data partitioned while serving it to the consumer in a way that made it look seamlessly integrated. Move.com was never required to do this, Realtor.com, afterall, is a site *for* Realtors.

Move.com has been perfectly positioned to step in and serve up this project since its conceptual stage. It will certainly be a "website" and will probable act similarly to any other MLS provided/owned public IDX portal...the public gets access to the IDX data and the Realtors must log in to the "main" system to get the rest of the data. Not rocket science as a product and since they are only serving up searches it shouldn't be too difficult to get it out there.

As far as my other arguments...read my post on the FBS blog. You and I have had this discussion as recently as last month. This really bothers me. Not because Move won't do the technology well, not because the PAG's original recommendations were but because the brokers have, yet again, not been given a choice about what happens with their listing content and that, in my opinion, just sucks!

It's almost comical to look back at the original w...

2008-11-14T05:40:00.000-08:00

It's almost comical to look back at the original well-thought-out results of the Future of MLS PAG to see what became of its output.

The original recommendation was a brilliant mechanism for handling MLS overlapping market disorder (OMD) while at the same time encouraging even more system choice.

Boy, this has gone off the rails.

There may still be value here - we'll just have to see if it re-evolves into something of merit - or if it becomes son of (or bride of) RIN.