Internet search giant Google is scrapping its property search tool.
Google had claimed that the tool would revolutionise the UK housing market.
On Wednesday, the search engine announced that it would discontinue the real estate feature within Google Maps from February 10 – just a year and a half after launching the service in the US and only eight months after its UK debut.
The company blamed low usage, the proliferation of excellent property search tools on real estate websites and technical challenges.
Brian McClendon, vice-president of Google Earth and Maps, said: “At Google, one of our key philosophies is to take risks and experiment. We’ve learned a lot and been excited to see real estate companies use Google Maps in innovative ways to help people find places to live.”
The service, which has been available in the US, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Japan, has proved controversial with estate agents around the world because, unlike most other internet property services, it allowed all sellers to upload property details free of charge.
Rivals claimed the tool threatened to cut estate agents and well-established property portals out of the house selling process.
But, although Google’s property search function attracted key names including Countrywide, Spicerhaart, Zoopla and SmartNewHomes, rivals claim that the service was never used by most buyers as more than a starting point for their property searches.
Alex Chesterman, founder and chief executive of property portal Zoopla, said: “This has been an interesting experiment for Google with an outcome that has not entirely surprised us. Whilst Google is clearly the world-class leader at search, its real estate offering on maps did not provide users with the type of rich product experience of sites like ours. The overwhelming majority of consumers continue to use the leading portals as their online starting point for property search.”
Three year’s ago Tesco’s abandoned its plans to create an online property store. It had hoped to sell homes for a flat fee of £199.
lucy.barnard@estatesgazette.com
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