Realtor.com: 'Consumer Eye-tracking Studies Confirm Redesign Benefits'
By Glenn Roberts Jr., Tuesday, May 20, 2008.Bookmarking Sites
Real estate Web sites' competition for eyeballs is getting serious -- Move Inc. is using eye-tracking studies to gauge how users interact with the redesigned Realtor.com site, now in beta.
Move Inc. officials, in a presentation today at the JP Morgan 36th Annual Technology Conference in Boston, will discuss the redesign and other company and industry developments.
The eye-tracking technology is a useful gauge for figuring out what consumers are paying the most attention to when visiting the Web site, said Errol Samuelson, Realtor.com president.
The technology features a camera that tracks eye movement, and Web page areas receive points in the test when the eyes linger there.
Tests of this technology on the existing Realtor.com site and the beta version of the site found that there is a 70 percent increase in view time at the new site, with 42 percent more properties viewed.
Employees at a research and development office that Move opened last year in California's Silicon Valley have had past experience using eye-tracking techniques, Samuelson said, and online companies like eBay and Google are among those that use the tests. (Note: the image here is from the film "Clockwork Orange," not from Move's R&D center.)
See this earlier blog post for some comments by Samuelson about online real estate.
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Submitted by Greg Broadbent on May 20, 2008 - 3:42pm.
That has to be some pretty cool stuff. Every minute that they are on the site gives the best listings the best chance of selling.
Submitted by Joe Cline on May 20, 2008 - 10:12pm.
Unfortunately, they will probably use the data to increase clicks on advertising instead of getting more attention to the listings. Perhaps, I'm just cynical about realtor.com. :)
Joe
Affinity Properties, Austin Realtors | Selling Austin Real Estate
Submitted by Michael Taylor on May 21, 2008 - 3:40am.
I am with you Joe, I'm not holding my breath for R.com to send me traffic anytime soon. Build your own website and generate your own traffic. R.com is my competition the way I see it.
Mike Taylor
Indianapolis Homes | Noblesville Real Estate
Submitted by Ki Gray on May 21, 2008 - 3:46am.
Yeah I really hate having my dues going to support a site that basically competes with us as realtors. And unless someone is a big time listing agent we really don't get too much out of realtor.com. At the very least we should not have to pay for extra pictures. I mean isnt r.com supposed to be "our" site as real estate professionals.
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