I began this week to test the Google Base beta projet API and bulk upload program.
Google Base is an online database provided by Google into which any user can add almost any type of content. A major component of Google Base is acting like a classified ads service. Some US real estate brokers are already listing their properties in this database and they seem pretty satisfied with the results and visits they get. We figured out that posting the homes for sale from ByTheOwner to Google Base could be a great idea to get additionnal visibility on our clients’ listings.

There a 3 ways to list a home for sale on Google Base.

1. Fill a online form describing the home for sale : Works great, but I definitely wouldn’t want to be the one filling all the forms for the properties on ByTheOwner, eheh
2. Work with the Google Base API, wich is quite simple if you get started with the demo.
3. Bulk upload. You first create a spreadsheet or xml file containing a list of items you want to send to google. Then you upload the file in your Base account and google processes the items in the file.

At first, I started with the API cause I wanted to send the ads to google instantly when the homes were created on ByTheOwner. But the need to get authentified with google everytime made my program very unpleasant to use. I figured out that the best option for me was the bulk upload. So I’m working on a script that will create a xml file containing all the active listings on ByTheOwner every morning. I’ll just have to upload the file to Google Base and Ta-Da!

I sent a first 20 homes batch on friday for testing purpose and it seems to work pretty well. Only problem I see is that the description is incomplete in the search results. I’ll start uploading all of our clients ads as soon as I’ll get this fixed.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 10:16 pm and is filed under Work in progress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.