Edgeio, a search service for online classifieds and other listings, has acquired the assets of Adaptive Real Estate Services, a real estate Web site provider that serves about 1.5 million property listings through the IDX (Internet data exchange) protocol used by multiple listing service organizations.
The acquisition will make it possible for real estate brokers to easily opt-in their property listings to an edgeio index, said Robert Meyer, who founded Adaptive Real Estate Services, known as ARES.
Unlike search engines, which index Web pages, edgeio indexes listings or “stuff,” as the company’s tagline specifies.
Edgeio constantly monitors RSS-enabled Web sites and pulls any item tagged “listing” and publishes the listing on the edgeio Web site and network. RSS, which stands for “Really Simple Syndication,” is an XML-based protocol that allows for the automatic distribution of Internet content. Many news-related sites, blogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS feed.
A Realtor, for instance, could go to edgeio.com and enter some of his or her for-sale home listings, or the Realtor could enable an RSS feed from his or her Web site or blog where listings appear, and edgeio will automatically pick them up.
Now that edgeio has acquired the assets of ARES, the company will make it possible for those brokers who have an ARES-created Web site to flip a switch to include their listings. But the inclusion is not limited to those brokers who have ARES Web sites, Meyer said. “Any Realtor can add listings,” he said, and consumers will be directed back to the broker or agent Web site when they click on a listing on edgeio.
ARES, founded in 2003, has relationships with brokers and agents in 70 of the top MLS organizations across the country. Meyer started the company with his son, Peter Meyer, as a Web site provider, but quickly expanded into offering online marketing services for broker and agent sites.
There are plans to push broker listings even further to a network of sites where consumers will be searching for properties for sale, according to Meyer, who said it is too early to disclose details of those relationships.
Meyer also said the company plans to give away Web sites to those brokers and agents who want to push their listings to the edgeio search network but who don’t already have a site.
The company sees itself as an online marketing venue for real estate. Keith Teare, edgeio’s co-founder and chief executive, writes in the company’s blog: “Our goal is ‘to bring together, organize and distribute the world’s marketplaces.’ As part of this we want edgeio.com to become a universal search engine for ‘stuff.’ As that evolves, the edgeio platform can become a major marketing vehicle for Realtors.”
Edgeio in October received $5 million in financing led by Intel Capital.
Since launching in March, edgeio says it has amassed more than 100 million listings from 14,000 cities across the globe. The listings aggregator collects Web listings in various categories, including homes, jobs and cars, and also sends traffic back to the original publishers.
