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Fantastic news came out of the Diverse Solutions camp a few days ago regarding the future availability of a Wordpress plugin for their IDX System.

The plugin allows for an embeded version of their IDX system into your Wordpress blog (as opposed to using frames to display IDX information), so listing data can be crawled and indexed by the search engines. 

Feature summary:

• Indexable listings data into your Wordpress blog - Finally!
  
• Some cool widgetts for quick searches, featured listings, etc.
  
• Ability to use "code snippetts" of some sort for embed applicable listing data into other types of posts
• Certainly much more than what I'm writing here
• Still accepting beta-testers until a final release is available!
  
• See a live site example here
  

Will there be more open source plugins or extensions becoming available from other IDX system providers?

To my knowledge this is the first open source cms plugin / extension to be available from a mainstream IDX vendor, but hopefully not the last. If you've read my reviews of the other IDX solution providers that offer a search engine friendly IDX system (eg. the type that allow listings to get indexed) you would know that most are a bit expensive and they all require you to use their own website/blog platform / cms. And though this is acceptable for some, allowing for the same SEO benefits to be available to you via an open source cms such as Wordpress is an undeniable great first step in the right direction for many. I'll even take it a step further and say that this is the best direction for any IDX company to take and here's why:

We all win with a tight integration of IDX systems and open source cms's!

• Longtail searching home buyers will find more relevant results from their online home searching
• Open source cms's empower agents and brokers and are key factors in yielding longterm positive ROI
• Joomla! and/or Wordpress often create better internet marketing options for real estate agents and brokers
  
• The open source development community can now be tapped as potential resellers or channel partners for IDX vendors to help with sales and marketing
• IDX vendors could focus more sharply on development efforts ultimately resulting in better products & solutions for agents and brokers
  

I could go on and on but I think you get the point. Do you think other IDX vendors will follow suit? If so, who? I have my own ideas...let me hear yours.