SAN DIEGO – Nov. 17, 2009 – A policy change approved  by the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) board of directors changes the way IDX listings may be programmed. While Realtors may still only post IDX listings on their personal websites, they are no longer required to program the postings in a way that discourages some third party vendors, such as Google and other search engines, from indexing the listings. 

The issue 

In the past, NAR interpreted any use of listings beyond a Realtor’s personal website as “scraping,” defined as a third party taking data from another website. It’s considered scraping, for example, if a software program goes to a website, automatically copies all listed email addresses to create an email database. In the case of listings, NAR considered it scraping if Google or other search engines lifted the information and put it into the search engine’s database. Google commonly does that with many websites because it helps their proprietary search technology return results faster when a consumer enters search criteria.  

It was unclear, however, whether a search engine’s use of listing information could correctly be interpreted as “scraping.” Opponents of NAR’s policy claimed that indexing information about listings merely helped a search engine do its job; consequently, it did not fit the traditional definition of “scraping.”  

The technology 

Real Estate Website developers can program a website, and home listings, in a way that deters search engines from automatically finding the info and storing it in their servers. Conversely, websites and home listings can be coded in a way that makes indexing easier. Realtors who made it easy for search engines to index their listings had an advantage over Realtors who did not, since their websites appeared higher in search engine rankings. That most likely led to more visitors and possibly more sales.  

Prior to the recent board decision, IDX listings had to be programmed in a way that made indexing difficult, following NAR guidelines that called for Realtors to use “reasonable efforts” to protect MLS listings from being “scraped.”

The decision 

NAR’s board reaffirmed that Realtors may “not use IDX-provided listings for purposes other than display on their websites,” but it deleted the rule demanding a reasonable effort to keep “recognized search engines” from collecting the data.  

The new policy does not require websites to code listings in a way that allows search engines to index them; instead, it no longer prohibits the practice.

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