Realestate.com.au have updated their website and included a new menu strip across the top and left hand side menus. Speaking with REA it seems that the main reason was to simplify the process for users as well as give some more prominence to some of the other resources that have been added in recent times (and purchased).
I hope this is something that leads to a full website design but it seems that REA are going to implement changes incrementally. Being such a large site I can understand this, but it really does need an overhaul. The site performs ok (for such a large resource) day in and day out but there are some things that I think REA should be looking at.
The Property pages and search results pages are getting a little heavy with advertising (and promotion of listings) and it is getting harder to see what is part of a property listing and what is not. That may be the plan but Internet users are getting so used to ignoring advertising that whenever they get caught out it just annoys them more.
I was provided some facts and figures on the new menu strip and every button showed an increase in click-thrus so it must be working. However it is just too hard to work out how they measure these things and against what history for it to be of any value to anyone else but REA.
Have a look for yourself and let me know what you think.
www.realestate.com.au
13 Comments
Robert Simeon
Still looks like the collective homepage for all the banks !!
snoop
banks and those value your homes and spam your mailbox crowds.
Andrew
One of the great advantages of the open2view website – no advertising and a very clean and user friendly interface. A great site for the presentation of any property utilising different photographic products all hosted on the site from THE AGENCY property page.
TomS
What a great plug for open2view. 40 agents Australia wide and I found one house in my suburb of Ivanhoe. Very clean indeed! Clean of content that is……..
On the subject of REA, as a prospective purchaser I find the new menu strip and side menus a terrific enhancement and it has simplied the use of the site.
trace
huh … ? I just had a look at realestate.com and couldn’t tell that anything’s changed. Still looks like a big jumbly mess of ads.
Simon N
Robert – Your comment made me laugh! How true it is…….
Peter, thought you would be harsher on REA’s lack of innovation, but I guess if
they are providing you stats and figures, they seriously need your endorsement.
I understand a redesign of their site is due in the next month or so, and this is just a teaser. Its something they have been working on for months and months.
Peter
Hi Simon and welcome on board. It is pretty hard to be critical when these are just minor changes. I would prefer to wait and see what the new site will look like when it comes.
I am no fan of the current website and have have made this clear many times.
Peter
ANother thing. I was wondering if anyone is feeding here to MyHome and if they are have all the problems been rectified. I am about to add them to my export list and am a little worried that I will be spending my time getting them to fix errors of properties that are sold, withdrawn, under contract etc.
I would greatly appreciate any feedback.
Glenn
We still have our connection to Myhome severed. I have yet to hear of anybody with a successful experience in terms of data errors and actual enquires.
One portal that has started having bad problems for us is Homehound. Something is going wrong with listings not being removed when they should be. Oh for the XML initiative… which segs nicely.. what is happening with this Peter? Its OT but so is your question about Myhome 🙂
Glenn
Just had a call from http://www.propertytoretire.com.au.
They make http://www.realestate.com.au look cheap!
Brand new portal with a market targeting retiring baby boomers and they are claiming 4000 pageviews (whoop de doo) already after 4 weeks and they want to charge $350 per month after the initial 3 month trial and all entry is manual at this stage.
Lots of database errors for me. Lets see if they last longer than realsearch!
Chris
So trace, use the internet much then?
Mark
Hi Peter,
Any thoughts on REA partnering up with StreetAdvisor? (Both are heavily dependent on Google Maps 🙂
http://blogs.realestate.com.au/newsandviews/2007/10/helping_you_find_the_right_pro.html
I get the feeling that the potential of User Generated Content would really ‘soften’ the corporate image of REA, by shifting the balance of content from the advertiser towards the user.
I guess it depends on the amount of users that sign up to StreetAdvisor – you’d need a substantial density of comments in your local area to provide a good cross-section of feedback.
There would also be a conflict between home-owners that may talk up their area ( to drive up value ) and renters that aren’t afraid of speaking negatively about their area, advising future buyers/renters not to move to that suburb!
Cheers for the interesting read.
Mark
Glenn
REA have their own solution coming although the full details have not been released yet. The latest update was the first of many smaller updates which will result in a larger change rather than one big update all in one go. This makes the change much more subtle and less of a shock to the userbase… Huge changes in technology, layout and navigation just do not work.. Just ask Myhome..