Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

Location, location, location

One of the bad things about being in France for Les Blogs earlier this week is that I ran out of battery power for my mobile phone and my laptop. One of the stories that I had hoped to break was a fantastic new feature Ireland’s most popular property website, Daft.ie, has launched.

The company has incorporated Google Maps so now any time you want to search for property, you’ll get a map of where it actually is (look at the bottom of the page) as well as the usual breakdown on rent, housemates, etc.

It’s a fantastic feature that is going to let the company pull ahead of its peers. It’s already my first stop for searching for property. Having rented my first apartment earlier this year (I’m one of the few Irish males under 30 that has actually moved away from his mammy!), I have first hand experience of how time consuming searching for a house or apartment is. When you finally find something you’re interested in, it’s a huge struggle to find the place then.

I haven’t heard of any other property companies using Google Maps like this, but it’s only a matter of time before companies realise what a great tool it is and use it on their own site also.

From Google’s perspective it’s an amazing branding tool. I hear that they may be in negotiations to sponsor Manchester United. I think that would be a complete waste of time in my opinion. If they keep rolling out great tools like Google Maps, they’ll keep rolling in the big bucks.

Unfortunately it’s not that great for property outside of Dublin, but if you’re familiar with Ireland you’ll understand why given the urban sprawl that is The Pale.

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Maps, Ireland, lesblogs, Piaras Kelly, Daft.ie