The law of unintended consequences is catching up to the Department of Justice as it seeks to improve cooperation between MLS members across the nation. Instead, more and more brokerages are opting to find alternative ways to showcase their listings online aside from sharing them with other brokers.

Taking full advantage of online technologies, brokers are displaying their listings on an increasing number of websites, but that doesn't mean that brokers are sharing their listings, as the DOJ had hoped. In fact, the opposite appears to be happening -- listings are more fragmented online than ever as brokers strive to distinguish their brands.

Subtle proof is in a recent article in USA Today by Noelle Knox, which tracks that buyers and sellers are turning to the Internet for information. One major reason is to shop for homes and to compare the price of homes, which is only an effective strategy where the consumer can find as many listings as possible. But there's the rub. There isn't a single entity that has "all" the listings, and the one that comes closest, Realtor.com, has the most viewers yet is losing eyeballs, according to Media Metrix figures.

Failing to understand why these different sites can't have all the listings, Ms. Knox appears to think that independent contractors should be thinking only of consumers to the exclusion of building their own brands and businesses. She writes the likes and don't-likes of the most-visited housing sites, and complains when the listings search is powered by a broker such as Keller Wiliams or Century 21.

"Technology is shifting knowledge and power to buyers and sellers. In doing so, it's loosening Realtors' long-standing control of vital information, and cutting into their sales commissions," Ms. Knox echoes previous writers without substantiation.

She goes on to say that "unless the MLS systems become more open, unified and technologically sophisticated, they risk being replaced by a Web search engine."

(Well, that assumes that search engines want to be MLSs, but under that broad brushstroke, any classified advertising section of any newspaper is an MLS.)

Ms. Knox then reports on the success of Zillow.com, which is "listing" homes for sale in it's Make Me Move section, where sellers who have not listed their homes with Realtors are offering their homes for sale without the marketing support of a Realtor. While it's debatable whether or not Zillow is a "search" engine, the company may be making enough of an impact online and in the press to redefine the word "listing." A listing used to mean a home listed by a Realtor into the Realtor's local multiple listing service, but by Ms. Knox's use, a listing is the same as a presentation to the marketplace.

But it's when she gets to the behavior of brokers on the most visited websites that a trend becomes clear -- Realtors are sharing their listings less with each other and are opting instead to showcase their own listings on their own Websites and with certain Web partners that allow them to showcase their brands. Why? Only two or three sites out of the top 10 most-trafficked Websites from her article relies on shared listings. All the rest are either broker-operated sites that show only their own listings, or they are third-party sites that rely on individual broker feeds for content.

A revolutionary form of marketing only a few years ago, Prudential has had an exclusive relationship with Yahoo! to supply the portal with real estate listings, which it acquires via Internet Data Exchange within local franchisees' MLS databases. Because the listings are shared with permission from other brokers, the local Prudential broker powers the local search with a more robust number of listings than if it had only Prudential brand listings. But, it's an exclusive advertising arrangement that works for Prudential, not necessarily for the brokers who aren't getting leads from sharing their listings. Sure, their sellers are getting more exposure, but it's not bringing recognition to the broker, who uses that recognition to get more listings.

But the Prudential-Yahoo! partnership is in the minority, and is being challenged by other "search engines" that showcase brokers individually, such as Trulia.com.

Trulia calls itself a real estate search engine, and is seeking homes from real estate agents. It's just announced an agreement with Keller Williams to post all the KW listings for free. Other brokers are welcome to follow suit, but KW's listings will be viewed by consumers and if the consumers have inquiries, they will go to KW's listing agents and the brand.

"Our goal as a real estate search engine is to send consumers to the listing broker or agent website where they can find out more information about the property (view agent info, see all pictures etc.)," explains Trulia public relations agent Kelly Roark. "We see our role as directly analogous to the role of a yard-sign in the offline world. As an IDX feed doesn't typically provide links through to the listing agent or broker site for a each listing, we don't take standard IDX feeds."

Breaking the mold for associations, the Houston Association of Realtors has put all its listings on Google Base, but the consumer goes to Har.com to get information, which continues to enforce the Realtor brand, then the individual brokers' brands.

Consider the actions of some of the largest players in regard to their own Websites.

• RE/MAX is powered by Realtor.com, which includes all the listings available on Realtor.com, but on their own site, contact information is available only on RE/MAX listings. That's an IDX accommodation that allows brokers to downplay their competitors.

• Coldwell Banker and Century 21 have chosen to post only their own listings, notes Ms. Knox.

And you can't blame the brokers -- why build someone else's brand when you can build your own?

Compounding the exposure problem, Realtor Internet data exchange policies, under scrutiny from the Department of Justice, are becoming riskier to comply with, which also invites the pursuit of an alternative way to advertise outside of the local MLS. If the DOJ and FTC knew the results of their persecution of the real estate industry, that brokers may be continuing to share listings, but that they are actively looking for alternatives to IDX/ILD-type exposure, they'd wouldn't be surprised that online listings cooperation is deteriorating, not improving.

Open relationships are appetizing to consumers, as long as enough brokers kick in their listings, but that will never happen as long as brokers have a way to showcase their brands.

And despite Ms. Knox's assertion, they're not going to be put out of business as long as they're the ones supplying the listings.