Real Estate Forums

Real Estate and Google By far the leader of the Search Engine Pack, a real estate site ranking at the top of Google, is an amazingly powerful lead generation tool. Discuss how to rank your real estate site in Google HERE!

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-26-2008, 11:41 PM
webmaster's Avatar
webmaster webmaster is online now
Administrator
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 13,472
webmaster will become famous soon enough
Default Is trulia cloaking? Interesting Sphin story

http://sphinn.com/story/55504 - When you click through be prepared for a VERY long wait, and it might crash your browser (Hope it doesn't) but basically the blog post being Sphunn is accusing Trulia of cloaking for the Google user agent.

I have for the most part tried to stay on the sidelines with the whole Trulia deal, but this sort of gossip I always find interesting for some reason (I guess because I want to see how it plays out with Google) - if in fact they are cloaking, I can't see how Google could ignore it.
__________________
Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles [Of Google] will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit. Google.com
Reply With Quote
Old 06-27-2008, 05:02 AM
John Allen's Avatar
John Allen John Allen is offline
Real Estate Web Guru
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Sarasota, FL
Posts: 303
John Allen is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Is trulia cloaking? Interesting Sphin story

Seems pretty clear....Here is Google's definition of cloaking from http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...delivery.html:

"Cloaking: Serving different content to users than to Googlebot. This is a violation of our webmaster guidelines. If the file that Googlebot sees is not identical to the file that a typical user sees, then you're in a high-risk category. A program such as md5sum or diff can compute a hash to verify that two different files are identical."
__________________
John Allen
RealtorŪ/Broker
Allen Real Estate Services, Inc.
Sarasota, Florida
Representing buyers and sellers of fine Sarasota real estate.
Reply With Quote
Old 06-27-2008, 06:58 AM
RESteve's Avatar
RESteve RESteve is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 1,464
RESteve is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Is trulia cloaking? Interesting Sphin story

I saw this this morning; pretty interesting! I'm particularly curious on the explanations that Trulia will (hopefully) offer to explain their use of this technique.

Seems fairly obvious that this is a "google no-no".
__________________
Steve Castaneda, Realtor
Keller Williams Realty
The MyHomeHouston Team

Specializing in Houston Real Estate. Feel free to visit my Houston Real Estate Blog or read about Real Estate Technology for agents.
Reply With Quote
Old 06-27-2008, 07:00 AM
Eric Blackwell Eric Blackwell is offline
Super Moderator
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Louisville Kentucky
Posts: 1,998
Eric Blackwell will become famous soon enough
Default Re: Is trulia cloaking? Interesting Sphin story

I just posted on it at the Bloodhound Blog...including a new post that Bramlett made. It is still photos of what they are doing. Here's a link to the BHB post.
Reply With Quote
Old 06-27-2008, 07:25 AM
Eric Blackwell Eric Blackwell is offline
Super Moderator
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Louisville Kentucky
Posts: 1,998
Eric Blackwell will become famous soon enough
Default Re: Is trulia cloaking? Interesting Sphin story

For the record, I think this TRULY defines how they view "partners"...they clearly see them as "lackeys" in my view...Somebody that they can get over on...

Something for us all to keep in mind when they call us, as REALTORS -- "partner"

Best;

Eric
Reply With Quote
Old 06-27-2008, 07:26 AM
ericbramlett's Avatar
ericbramlett ericbramlett is offline
Uber Real Estate Webmaster
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 1,560
ericbramlett is on a distinguished road
Send a message via AIM to ericbramlett Send a message via MSN to ericbramlett Send a message via Yahoo to ericbramlett
Default Re: Is trulia cloaking? Interesting Sphin story

Sorry for the long wait, guys. I put up a pictorial and linked it to the video.
__________________
Eric Bramlett

PM Me For Guest Blogging Opportunities!!!

Austin Real Estate | Austin Texas Real Estate | Austin Condos
Reply With Quote
Old 06-27-2008, 07:28 AM
ericbramlett's Avatar
ericbramlett ericbramlett is offline
Uber Real Estate Webmaster
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 1,560
ericbramlett is on a distinguished road
Send a message via AIM to ericbramlett Send a message via MSN to ericbramlett Send a message via Yahoo to ericbramlett
Default Re: Is trulia cloaking? Interesting Sphin story

Also...I don't really see how there could be any explanation other than a plain-ol' cloak. Serving google bot one page, and users another is the definition of cloak. It's easy to see why they're doing it - they're pumping their city pages. Stupid, stupid move on their part, and I think it shows what their SEO team thinks of our level of SEO competency.
__________________
Eric Bramlett

PM Me For Guest Blogging Opportunities!!!

Austin Real Estate | Austin Texas Real Estate | Austin Condos
Reply With Quote
Old 06-27-2008, 07:43 AM
Discover Davis Homes's Avatar
Discover Davis Homes Discover Davis Homes is offline
REW Client
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Davis, CA
Posts: 649
Discover Davis Homes is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Is trulia cloaking? Interesting Sphin story

My guess is that a lot of their "partners" do not tend to focus on SEO and do not know what to look for. I am also guessing that Trulia's response will be that someone made a mistake and most of the "partners" will belive them.
Reply With Quote
Old 06-27-2008, 07:53 AM
brandonre's Avatar
brandonre brandonre is offline
Uber Real Estate Webmaster
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Brandon, Florida
Posts: 571
brandonre is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Is trulia cloaking? Interesting Sphin story

I am sure they will spin this one as they spin everything else and just assume we are all idiots, pretty brazen stuff. Good work if you can get away with.

Quote:
Also...I don't really see how there could be any explanation other than a plain-ol' cloak.
Reply With Quote
Old 06-27-2008, 08:25 AM
Malok's Avatar
Malok Malok is offline
Uber Real Estate Webmaster
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Kentucky - in a barn!
Posts: 1,163
Malok is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Is trulia cloaking? Interesting Sphin story

Trulia has some very capable "politicians" on staff that do damage control for them.


And given that most of their "partners" are fairly ignorant regarding the whole SEO concept (or are probably paid) - all Trulia has to do is get a smooth talker to claim its a mistake, that Trulia cares about their partner relationships, visit their blog for discussion and they'll likely believe them.
__________________
Jennifer Karlen & Jon Karlen
Kentucky Horse Farms - Louisville Kentucky Real Estate - Lexington Kentucky Real Estate
Serving the Louisville KY metropolitan area including Jefferson County - Prospect Shelby County - Shelbyville Oldham County - Goshen, La Grange and the Lexington KY metropolitan area including Fayette County - Lexington Woodford County - Versailles Scott County - Georgetown Jessamine County - Nicholasville
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Trulia Widgets ericbramlett Real Estate and Google 31 05-19-2008 03:30 PM
Trulia? TwoMoores Social Networking 21 03-12-2008 07:24 AM
Trulia Feed Submission hicrc Real Estate Chat 10 01-15-2008 11:59 AM
Trulia 101 PPC_Newbie Other Search Engines 9 04-16-2007 02:08 PM

For our members

Main Sections

IDX Coverage Areas

Spiders Welcome

All times are GMT -7. The time now is 04:30 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.