Google has announced a nationwide expansion of real estate search features that allow consumers to view property information and connect directly with real estate professionals from search results.

For REALTORS®, this is another reminder that visibility, responsiveness, and professional expertise remain critical as consumers encounter listings and real estate information in more places than ever before.  For the MLS, we are continuing to work with the developers at FlexMLS / Spark platform to ensure our data is secure and being used only where and how the REALTORS allow it to be shared.

Behind the scenes we are working to

• Establish Clear Ownership Rights in order to tackle unauthorized use.
• Adopt Volume-Based License Agreements to more easily ensure authorized licensees have access to our data, and no one else
• Tracking Who Is Authorized by the MLS and by FBS for data use for quick identification of bad actors.

Coming Soon: Automated Listing Provenance that includes

• Invisible watermarking for photos to help prove the originating MLS and data feed

• Search technology to identify where unauthorized listing displays are occurring

These features are being built directly into the FBS ecosystem.