If you don’t know what a vlog is, you will soon. As Google has just purchased YouTube for $1.65 BILLION in shares. Apparently, it was not so much that they wanted the name, but more importantly that none of their competitors acquired it.
What does this have anything to do with Real Estate? Absolutely everything!
The concept of The User-Generated Content Wave was recently brought up on the Inman News Blogs special report. And explained how sites like YouTube, Google video, Yahoo! Video, and Soapbox (MSN), have been making it easier to upload and watch videos online (I don’t believe they mentioned Eyespot, and it deserves to be on the list too). Most importantly, they showed how it’s making real estate cooler.
Now that Google, the leader in search engines, has purchased YouTube, you can expect to start seeing some changes in your internet searching. I would think that after spending a healthy amount of its shares, google will begin to introduce internet videos into peoples daily internet life. I expect to see them do this by giving better placement to sites that incorporate videos. And for good reason, as videos are far superior for multiple purposes, take for example the RentVine how to video for their new MapVine.
But it’s not necessarily all peaches and cream for Real Estate Agents. The total flipside to Google Video making online videos easier for people, is that, google video is making online videos easier for people. Before most Realty companies have adapted to changing technologies, expect to start seeing some competition from FSBO’s, as the video how to, is easily accessible to all (well….now it is). I have already found one interesting mashup incorporating videos and Real Estate, and it’s available to anyone for free.
This is it, the video age is officially here, and it’s an exciting time to be in Real Estate. As new technologies continue to change our market, Real Estate agents are given the choice to adapt, or continue as is and go the way of travel agents. I have my video camera, do you have yours?
