RentMarketer just launched RentBits.com which is a 180 direction change for the company.
RentMarketer which has been around for several years is a distribution channel. RentMarketer basically will take one rental listing and then distribute it out to many sites (such as RentVine.com).
Now with the addition of RentBits they are changing direction to aggregator (similar to Oodle.com) while still staying a distributor. RentBits goes out and spiders rentals sites like RentVine and then they place a small description and thumbnail photo and then links back to the original source.
Oodle.com does this already, however RentBits will be able to specialize in just the rental industry and should have the advantage.
I went to Oodle.com today and noticed that they are now accepting listings on their site. So now I guess you could consider Oodle as a competitor to sites like Rentals.com and RentalHouses. Perhaps I missed it but appears Oodle.com try to add that feature very quietly (I rechecked their blog and didn’t see it mentioned).
And once again a company like RentalHomePros is being trumped by yet other company to have access to some rich data on rental properties.
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6 users responded in this post
Hey Dave,
With regards to posting on Oodle, we are currently testing it as a new feature. When consumers post a listing through Oodle, the listing shows up on our partners’ sites. In short, this is a syndication model where we’re pushing listings to our partners and enabling them to build out their content.
This is a pretty incremental change to what we had been doing. Prior to this, we provided our users with links to post-a-listings forms on our partners’ sites. Unfortunately, the process was cumbersome for consumers and we received numerous requests to come up with something better.
I like the new rentbits….Looks cool! Maybe Dan will let me send him a feed?
Robbie
Thanks Dave for the write up. Robbie, absolutely. You can send us a feed here:
http://rentbits.com/rb/page/submit-your-ads.html
Dave,
RentalHomePros was supposed to launch this quarter. It’s March 18th and no site. Can you get the scoop?
Kona
Should I give Mike Nelson a call to see how it is coming?
Dave,
Why not?
Kona