Aussie papers may pull ads to protest Google real estate site

Posted by Emily Dilling on July 27, 2009 at 10:39 AM

Two major Australian newspapers have threatened to pull their advertisements on Google as a form of protest against the recently launched Google Maps Real Estate service, an aggregator of real estate listings found on other sites, The Inquisitr reported.

Australia's News Ltd. and the Fairfax group, which own prominent real estate sites, are on the defense against the new site, which they see as a competitor to their respective Realestate.com.au and Domain.

In a statement issued by Fairfax addressing the threat to pull ads, the group stated: "we are obviously not keen to support a would-be competitor with our revenue."

Visitors to Google Maps Real Estate can conduct searches using a variety of options, including neighborhood, size of the property and the price range. While real estate agencies can directly list their properties on the sites, independent sellers must have information on their home aggregated from another site in order for it to appear on Google's Web site.

An article appearing the Sydney Morning Herald pointed out that Realestate.com.au and Domain both get one third of their traffic from Google, which may give pause to protest plans.