Trade Me moves to Google Maps and Street View

Media Release

2 December 2008

Trade Me moves to Google Maps and Street View

Trade Me has moved its mapping functionality from SMAPs to Google Maps and has tailored its site to best utilise Google’s Street View which gets switched on today.

Visitors to Trade Me Property and Travelbug will now be able to visualise and locate houses and accommodation, as well as see surrounding areas.

“While we had a lot of positive feedback about SMAPs from our members, the fact is that mapping is not our core business and Google‘s better at innovating in this area,” said Trade Me’s head of commercial, Mike O’Donnell.

“For this reason we decided to move to Google Maps in Trade Me Property and Travelbug.”

The change coincides with Google releasing its Street View functionality on Google Maps in New Zealand today. Street View gives people the ability to virtually walk the streets of a city or town.

“The incorporation of Google’s Street View should make house or holiday hunting easier.”

“Given we operate the most visited real estate website in New Zealand, there’s an obligation on us to use the best mapping technology. Cool stuff like Street View are a good example of technology that empowers consumers.”

Starting today, Street View on Google Maps will be available for all of Trade Me Property’s 94,000 listings.

Trade Me Property has been the #1 visited real estate website in New Zealand for the last three years. With over 719,000 unique browsers per month, it’s larger than all the other New Zealand real estate websites combined1.

ENDS

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