The New MicroHoo Real Estate
Microsoft launches a $44.6 Billion unsolicited bid to acquire Yahoo.
Let’s assume for a moment that the deal will stick (and it certainly sounds like it’s farther along than we think) - what does it mean for online real estate?
First and foremost, it likely means consolidation at the top of the real estate portals as the #2 and #3 sites (according to ComScore) will probably merge.
MSN Real Estate has been the ugly stepchild of the Real Estate 2.0 crowd to date - merely an afterthought, despite its massive monthly traffic.
Yahoo Real Estate, by contrast, has been pushing out new features steadily and is clearly the superior of the two destinations. No doubt in my mind - Y!RE will win out and become the dominant destination. This is surely great news in the minds of the folks at Yahoo who have been troubled by their future for weeks (see What’s in Store for Yahoo Real Estate).
Who this impacts most is Move.com - partly because they’ll see a combined entity nipping at the heels of Realtor.com, but also because they currently power MSN’s real estate searches (and no doubt draw a bunch of their own traffic from those searches).
Will Y!RE under its tent, MSN will likely push that relationship to the side and focus on tying all of its new properties under a revamped real estate destination.
A revitalized MicroHoo mega-portal is something that the other Real Estate 2.0 participants must dread as well. Especially since most are now into the second and third years of operations and are still hoping to gain traction amongst consumers. This could be the final nail in their coffins.
In any case, all speculation at this stage. But definitely fun to think about.
More:
- Greg Sterling gives ‘Micro-Hoo’ the Local Angle
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
12 Comment(s)
5 Trackback(s)
- From Real Estate Roundup - Week 5 | eCommission Blog | Feb 1, 2008
- From The New MicroHoo Real Estate - Affordable Website Marketing - Just another website promotion and online advertising weblog about seo and search engine marketing | Feb 1, 2008
- From I’m with Joel in wondering what… « 4realz.net | Feb 1, 2008
- From The Odysseus Medal competition — Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open | BloodhoundBlog: Real estate marketing and technology blog | Realtors and real estate, mortgages, lending, investments | Feb 4, 2008
- From A National MLS Won’t Work, But a Loose Network of Savvy Real Estate Professionals Could at The XBroker | Feb 5, 2008
Very Interesting | Feb 1, 2008 | Reply
Great post Joel and jumping on the potential implications. Here are a few more: 1) Yahoo Real Estate could use Microsoft Virtual Earth and its superior mapping/imagery solutions, 2) brokers who are submitting feeds to Yahoo Real Estate could get distribution on MSN Real Estate once Realtor.com is bounced out.
Pretty interesting stuff.
January Comscore numbers are due out next week. Then you will see how a combined Yahoo and MSN Real Estate stacks up against Move and others.
Joshua Ferris | Feb 1, 2008 | Reply
You know it’s amazing to me how real estate technology continues to shift. In 2007 I figured the “big” real estate web innovations were finished and then Microsoft comes along and shakes up the box.
Good-bye REALTOR.com. Hello FrontDoor and Yahicro! Real Estate.
MoveFan | Feb 1, 2008 | Reply
We have seen the consolidation of web search over the years - Google being the dominant player and Yahoo and Microsoft ‘competing’ but all the other players shaking out or not gaining any traction.
Same thing will happen in vertical real estate search. The new MSN/Yahoo! Real Estate will dominate traffic and search share, and brokers will have to advertise there because that’s where the lion’s share consumer eye balls will be. It’s a scale issue - advertisers have to be where their consumers are.
If I were Move, I’d be shaking in my boots - clearly their shareholders are…
retrove.com | Feb 1, 2008 | Reply
Excellent points Joel. I suspect the timing of MicroHoo was to further shake up G on missing earnings. Ultimately this maybe best for Z since Y seems to feel comfortable with that relantionship on home valuations.
jillayne schlicke | Feb 1, 2008 | Reply
I wonder if MicroHoo will put together something like they tried oh so many years ago with Ian Morris at the helm, the guy that’s now running housevalues.com What was the name of that Microsoft Division?
andrew | Feb 1, 2008 | Reply
the purchase will most likely not change anything in terms on real estate search. I do not think the sites will merge and if they do it will take years to complete. Although I wish it wouuld, Realtor.com will still not die.
Tom | Feb 1, 2008 | Reply
Interesting post… but I have a feeling that even if this goes forward, their focus will be on web search and trying to unseat the Goog before putting serious time & money into the verticals.
retrove | Feb 1, 2008 | Reply
@andrew - quite the contrary regarding the big R - they are quitely getting very aggressive w/ SEO from what I see in the SERPS
@tom - 100% agree the main battle is for search, portal type properties like the RE second on list.
Joe from VideoHomes | Feb 2, 2008 | Reply
Both Google and Microsoft see the way forward is rooted in shared technology. That is, the taking of their proprietary applications and granting right of use so as to increase distribution of their advertising.
Technology companies are redefining the media industry with this approach. Rather than monetize a central destination source technology companies are now monetizing a central technology that sits under the hood of many media destinations. This approach is a more open concept that is conducive to the mentality of consumer habit and more importantly better leverages online-offline convergence. This as opposed to the more “closed” concept of gaining market share through a total focus on building MicrohooRealestate.com (that’s actually not a half bad domain :), as a sole destination.
As ubiquity increases it will be the national real estate mediums that begin to shake. What is to be the strategy of all these fancy new national real estate portals when they are pitted against Google and Microsoft in a technology war? Media companies are not technology companies. Ultimately online real estate destinations will not gain market share through proprietary technology but rather through proprietary branding for much the engines will be the same. And since I’m on this analogy, who buys a car based on the functionality of the engine? If both get you there, does not the brand (which represents a better fit for the individual) become the true motivating purchase factor?
The winner of the coming battle between Google and Microsoft will be judged by which one can better probigate their proprietary technology across multiple media destinations. Not by who going to build the more visited website.
Prudential Hawaii | Feb 3, 2008 | Reply
With Yahoo and Facebook, Microsoft is pulling together a serious strategy in the search business.
Bobby Carroll | Feb 5, 2008 | Reply
One shouldn’t expect to see Google sit on the sidelines and not get into the fray. Can you say GOO-HOO!
G.Simon | Feb 16, 2008 | Reply
Yahoo by Microsoft will be the new name. Not Micro Who?
YahMic! Yahoo by Microsoft.