Reading the comments from the Gomez spokesperson it is clear that they are clueless as to the real estate industry and what the various sites offer as their products. Perfect example are the e-generric companies. The reason that they offer a lower cost to consumers is not because they are on the internet, it is because the work for a compensation that is less than average. They should not have included franchise or brokerage sites in the same list with the major aggregators. They serve totally different purposes. The aggregators are there to offer information to the public but mainly to direct customers to real estate professionals. The brokerage and franchise sites are obviously there to garner more customers and communicate with clients. By mixing the two types the criteria that was used don't apply equally to both types of sites. One criteria I didn't see was frequency of updates. In today's market this should be one of the most important criteria. Had they used the update frequency criteria there would have been a major shift in rankings. The only site that updates every day (including weekends and holidays) is HomeSeekers. Most others are pretty good about updating every business day. The one site that is the worst at updating data, and even worse at adding photos is Realtor.com. SoCalMLS is in a unique position to evaluate the large sites because our listings can be found on all of them. Maybe we'll issue the SoCalMLS.com survey and see how the sites stack up. Our focus would be on how well the sites serve our customers - real estate practitioners. The Gomez focus is on consumers - and that's fine. They just need to realize that the aggregators focus is different - although some cross the line and usurp much of the realtors' expertise thus allowing the consumer to bypass the very people the sites are supposed to be serving. Gomez doesn't look at the ancillary services offered by these sites in the form of web pages and web sites. Again, some sites are much more "realtor friendly" because they choose to allow the agent and brokers to be the ones to offer things like lending info, how to buy/sell a house, school reports, neighborhood info, crime stats, etc. If all of this information is available on the large "master" site, why would a consumer need to contact a realtor? Another criteria that is overused is the number of listings. The number of listings is only important when the consumer goes to a partuclar area and all the listings are there. For example, a consumer doesn't wake up one morning and say "I want to search the entire country for a new house". No - they say "I wonder what's for sale in Mission Viejo, or South Orange County". So as long as all of SoCalMLS's listings are being posted we are happy. Sorry for the rant, but Gomez needs to learn the survey and evaluation businress before they continue offering their "expert" opinions. Russ Bergeron SoCalMLS

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