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Microsoft's Bing search engine has struggled to compete with Google but is gaining ground thanks to AI investments. With about ten percent of global search traffic, Bing aims to further close the gap by integrating ChatGPT plugins for sites like Expedia, Instacart, Zillow, and Redfin. But, as we discuss in today's email, this integration has sparked controversy in the real estate community over data sharing practices, raising concerns about legality and control over property listings.

This week in Propmodo Technology, we explore multifamily management, discussing how apartments are using rewards programs to retain tenants as the rental market softens. We also examine whether smart home technology is making apartment living easier or more complicated, and how multifamily properties can be future-proofed with smart access control.

Now, let's dig in!

Bing's New AI-Zillow Integration Has Some Calling for an Investigation

The Bing search engine was released by Microsoft in 2009. Since then, it has struggled to gain traction against Google’s search dominance. In 2021, it represented only about six percent of total search traffic. However, that number is growing thanks to Microsoft’s investment in AI. Now Bing accounts for around ten percent of global search traffic, and it hopes that adding AI capabilities to new data sets will help it close the gap with Google.

Last year, Microsoft announced it would be “accelerating the Bing ecosystem” with ChatGPT plugins. These plugins would work for popular websites like Expedia, Instacart, and Tripadvisor, allowing users to automate certain aspects of their searches to make the results more useful. The partnerships also included popular real estate listing websites Zillow and Redfin. “With Zillow, you’ll have a built-in real estate expert giving your Bing search a boost with additional housing and market information,” the release said. “With Redfin, you will be able to describe your ideal home in everyday terms and Bing Chat will find listings that suit your needs, saving you from searching through endless listings,” it continued.

Now Bing has rolled out its Real Estate search platform, and some are wondering if the integration with Zillow and Redfin has gone too far. A quick search on Bing Real Estate shows that most listings come from either Zillow or Redfin, often redirecting the user to the original listing on those sites for more detailed information.

This has set off alarm bells with some industry observers. Bing is not an MLS affiliate and thus does not technically have the right to publish listings shared through multiple listing organizations. One commentator even called out Zillow and Redfin for possibly allowing Bing open access to the data they get from MLSs around the country.

“One way or another, each and every MLS in America has a duty to its brokers to stop Bing from displaying these listings,” said Victor Lund. “Brokers join the MLS to participate in a bargain whereby each broker contributes their proprietary listing content to gain exclusive reciprocal access to the proprietary listings of other broker participants. If brokers are the only ones playing by the rules and being limited in their use of property data, why belong to the MLS and pay for the opportunity to have their data usage oppressed? MLS must protect the assets contributed by each broker, or firms will simply contribute their content to OpenAI for free and access the listing content of other brokerage firms using OpenAI.”

Little is known about the nature of the arrangement between Zillow, Redfin, and Microsoft. The complicated precedent for what websites are and are not allowed to share regarding listings makes it hard to say definitively if this practice is legal. Either way, the real estate community is not happy. As more of the industry becomes aware of how these listings are being shared with one of the world’s biggest data aggregators, we might start to see an investigation into this matter. The MLSs will try their hardest to maintain control over property listings submitted by their members, but based on the difficulties they have had in the past protecting their turf, it might be hard for them to take on an opponent as large and powerful as Microsoft.

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