R&M: Ed, I was wondering whether you have come from a programming or property background? What about your colleagues?

Ed: We come from a heavy internet/technology background. Javier Etxebeste, the other co-founder, and I spent several years working together on search at Yahoo! Europe. Our experience in UK property is minimal. Our goal is to build a great property search engine, not to be estate agents or a property portal. On our site we try to be very explicit about the things we do and don't want to be.

R&M: The property search engine segment has gone crazy in the last year - every week somebody draws my attention to a new one. Why do you think it's such an attraction? Has it to do, in any way, with Rightmove's giant market cap?

Ed: The developments of the last few years, most notably the rise of Google, have shown the power of search. Internet users like searching. In response vertical search engines have sprung up in all categories (news, travel, shopping, yellow pages, blogs) all around the world not just UK property.

R&M: Whose idea was Nestoria? How did it develop?

Ed: We've watched the search engine space closely for years, especially the rise of vertical search engines. We also tracked the amazing pace of innovation in online mapping over the last 18 months. We thought the time was ripe to try some new ideas in property search.

R&M: Is it being funded from outside? Or is it a pet project funded by your other work?

Ed: We're funded by private investors. It's a full time business.

R&M: Do you think there's room for so many websites? Or is the game about seeing off the rivals through and becoming the Google of property search? If so, why will it be Nestoria?

Ed: We believe there will be a clear process of consolidation in property search.

We're at version 1.0 of property search. Nobody really knows yet what users prefer. We don't think we have all the answers, but we do think our experience in web search is a key asset in building a great user experience and feature set.

The future is hard to predict (look at how rapidly the landscape has changed in web search in the last 2-3 years). We're always looking for ways to cooperate with others, not to compete.

R&M: So how do you get access to the listings? Are you having to deal with estate agents and get them to sign up? If so, what's that process like? And how much work would it take to become complete for the whole of the UK? Is it feasible?

Ed: Comprehensiveness is a critical part of the search experience, but equally important are aspects like user experience, relevancy, and quality of the data.

Like other search engines, we gather our data from across the web. Over time we hope to migrate partners to provide us a data feed. We also work with a few partners that provide a feed from the first day.

R&M: So are you actually phoning up estate agents, office at a time, or head
office at a time? What's that experience like?

Ed: Some agents have contacted us directly. We're meeting with many
people in the industry: a very diverse group (agents, portals) with
very different needs and skills. The talks we've had so far have been
encouraging.

R&M: Don't agents have exclusive deals with certain property portals?

Ed: Some do, and that's fine. Fundamentally we think most agents will want to get their properties in front of as many potential customers as possible.

R&M: Who are your rivals? And which are your favourite rivals?

Ed: We think some aspects of ononemap were very innovative when they first launched. It's very early days in property search, and that no one has figured out the best user experience. There is room for many new ideas.

Property portals like Rightmove and the others provide a wealth of information about the complex process of buying or selling a property in the UK. They do that well and we have no plans to go in that direction, nor do we have the resources to emulate the things they do. We see lots of areas for cooperation with the larger players.

R&M: I've noticed that lots of the new property search engines are built on mashups with the Googlemaps API... what's the commercial deal here? Is the API available for non-profit purposes only, or can it be used for commercial enterprises too?

Ed: We use Google maps because we think they offer the best mapping solution right now. Their API is very easy to use. We are looking forward to seeing how other players in the online mapping space respond.

R&M: So what's the deal with commercialising their code? Is that allowed? Or
is the API all about non-profit mashups?

Ed: Google maps allows commercial use as long as you don't charge the end user.

R&M: Can you talk about they way in which Nestoria will be monetised?

Ed: Sure. First of all, we will never charge a listing fee. We'll make money by generating leads for advertisers.

R&M: By advertisers... do you mean non-estate agent advertisers whom you'll
add to your site in due course? Or do you mean leads related to
listings?

Ed: We mean leads related to the listings. We launched two weeks ago and
are learning a lot from the users. Monetisation is a critical part of
the business but it can't come at the expense of the user experience,
so we haven't pushed it yet.

R&M: So what's the next stage with Nestoria?

Ed: Two things: learning from the users to provide the best possible experience, and expanding our coverage to all of the UK.

We'd love to speak with anyone in the industry who sees a way to work together.

R&M: Ed, thanks very much for chatting. We wish you luck with Nestoria. Keep in touch.