Today Domain.com.au launched their online real estate site ‘Adore‘ and the site looks fantastic. It loads quite fast for a media rich portal. Each property is given a sexy look and lovely icons appear dotted throughout Sydney.
Apparently there was a major launch tonight and yet again I was not invited…..
It seems an elite group of agents will market this site as a Premium Style listing site to garner attention from the upper end of town and by the looks of it – it will be a massive hit with agencies!
I wonder whether this will be rolled out to other states any time soon or maybe they have a different one planned for each major city.
Each participating agent is listed on the home page (it does not seem to change on refresh of page) but it is not in alphabetical order, so I wonder who gets top billing….. and why?
Going deeper
Now, I do not want to sound too negative, but this offers nothing really new for consumers and they are the ones who will ultimately decide its fate. Now I get the idea, and I am sure Domain and Fairfax are proud of it – but here is the rub.
What does it offer the consumer that is different? Less information, a new way of searching that is different to what they have been doing for years (at least mapping makes it obvious.
Consumers can either go to where all the listings are or just go to where there are a select few, where a few agents and vendors pay more money to be listed. You also have to guess what to do when you make a selection, there is some information on how to do it, but you are making a user work it out for themselves. Then you have to work out via a small email link how you can contact someone. Oh this just keeps getting worse…..
Why didn’t they do an Absolute/Virtual waterfront style site? The site is stunning to look at – but it is the same data that is on other sites, just harder to get to. There is some Flash Video Player stuff…..but again REA or PBL could offer this in a week….but it is up to agents to shoot the information and send it through.
Am I going mad? Am I supposed to get excited? What is it about these companies that think that by just making something look good that it will be popular. Geez I want to like this site, I want Domain to be competitive and I really want REA to be pushed, but this is just eye candy….
I am informed that this took six months to build, all it is is re-positioning of data around a pretty design……about 4 weeks work and by the sounds of it 4 months of focus groups.
One day, one sunny day!
I really really really want Domain to do something great, but if this is the fruits of six months of non thinking then I really only have PBL’s launch to look forward to.
Pretty yes…..something new…..yes….anything new for consumers…..nope? Or have I missed something….
Fairfax Digital – Fix this immediately…….
1. Have a form to email on each of the property pages so users can actually contact an agent easily….
2. Make logo link back to home page……
3. Make “View Selection” Flash or Pulse after a selection is made so that the users eyes are attracted to it…
4. Make drop down selection automatically load for suburb profiles………..
5. Have agents on home page reload to different positions or at least make them in alphabetical order….
6. Create RSS Feeds (cannot believe you missed out on this one)….