News: 0180395893

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Google's Real Estate Listings 'Experiment' Sends Zillow Shares Down More Than 8% (geekwire.com)

(Tuesday December 16, 2025 @11:40AM (msmash) from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.)


Google's data partner HouseCanary has [1]begun displaying home listings directly in search results in select markets, sending Zillow's shares tumbling more than 8% yesterday as investors weighed whether the search giant might eventually cut into the portal business that Zillow dominates.

The experiment places property details, prices, images and a "Request a tour" button at the top of mobile search results. HouseCanary, a full-service brokerage licensed in all 50 states and Washington D.C., said it contacted every MLS in the test regions before launching.

Analysts are largely downplaying immediate concerns. Goldman Sachs noted that most of Zillow's traffic comes directly through its apps and websites rather than Google searches, though the firm views the development as a long-term risk. Piper Sandler called the fears "overblown," and Wells Fargo suggested portals like Zillow would likely end up bidding for ad units on Google rather than losing traffic outright.



[1] https://www.geekwire.com/2025/googles-real-estate-listings-experiment-sends-zillow-shares-down-more-than-8/



monpolies... (Score:3)

by rknop ( 240417 )

Zillow is an effective monopoly on internet real-estate listings, that is bad.

Google is an effective monopoly on anything internet search related that it decides to dip its fingers into, that is worse.

Re: (Score:2)

by geekmux ( 1040042 )

> Zillow is an effective monopoly on internet real-estate listings, that is bad.

Zillow believes they're still relevant. Unless we're going to eliminate the overhead and significant cost home buyers pay to realtors, I see little reason to sustain or justify Zillows existence. We know how this market worked before they came around.

MLS isn't some coveted mystery complete with secret handshakes. If basic competition can send your stock price tumbling, your stock price was as grossly overinflated as the ego that assumes competition will have no real impact.

> Google is an effective monopoly on anything internet search related that it decides to dip its fingers into, that is worse.

If Google allows and fully supp

Re: (Score:2)

by whoever57 ( 658626 )

If you are nosy about a house, don't use Zillow.

Zillow seems to remove photos of properties after a sale, while realtor.com retains them.

Re: (Score:2)

by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 )

> Zillow is an effective monopoly on internet real-estate listings

Except for Redfin.com, Realtor.com, Homes.com, Opendoor.com, MLS.com, etc.

According to Google, Zillow has a 44% market share for real estate searches. That's no where near a monopoly.

Re: (Score:2)

by kwelch007 ( 197081 )

Funny. 44% is higher than the iPhone market share in the EU, and Apple has been unsuccessfully arguing it doesn't have a monopoly there. Seems they may have a point?

Correction... (Score:2)

by Sebby ( 238625 )

> Google is an effective monopoly

Google is an effective Privacy Rapist

There FTFY.

Zillow Mobile (Score:2)

by CubicleZombie ( 2590497 )

Their app updated and I could no longer use it without logging in. I do not want a Zillow account. Their app became irrelevant to me, and there's nothing special about their web site.

Availability is limited.