House Porn

Late last week, we received this note from a concerned Trulia user:

“Is this the type of garbage you allow on your web site? It is unacceptable for a company not to check out their advertisers…I have enclosed a copy of the ad from your site I ran across while looking for property today…I would hope you will take immediate action to correct this.”

Not our favorite type of email to receive (although we are glad that the user sent it).

In case it’s not obvious, here’s what happened:

On every Trulia property details page we have a link to “read more” which goes directly to the listing broker or agent web site. This is an important part of our business model — we believe that the web site for the broker/agent that has actually entered the home is the best source of information for a potential buyer. In this case, the link directed to something more commonly seen late night in Las Vegas than on Trulia.

Of course, we immediately broke the link to the offending site.

While many have used the colloquialism of “house porn” to describe real estate web sites, we were notified by a user that an opportunistic adult entertainment company briefly turned real estate slang into reality. As a form of business development (i.e., a way to find more interested, albeit unsuspecting users), porn companies will often pounce on domain names when their owners don’t renew them. One target for this type of activity is agent web sites where turnover can be high.

Why are we sharing this information?

We take great pains to make sure that listings on Trulia are not only up to date and accurate, but also free of unwelcome pornographic intrusion. We imagine that you do the same. For agents building their online presence — it’s important to note that this could happen to you and to underscore the importance of managing your online office, renewing your domain names and maintaining vigilance against the pornographic blitzkrieg across the internet.

What if http://www.agentsname.com pointed to a porn site and “agentsname” was your name…ouch.