As part of the launch of MSN 8, Microsoft's newest version of its ISP services, MSN HomeAdvisor is changing its name to MSN House & Home - to better reflect its tight integration with MSN, and leverage MSN's strong global reach of more than 300 million unique monthly visitors, says the site.

"This change will have no impact on the focus or business model of MSN House & Home," says a spokesperson for the home channel. "As the dedicated home channel on MSN, the evolution to MSN House & Home is a natural step and part of its commitment to unify around the MSN brand."

He adds, "MSN House & Home is one of MSN's strongest channels and our valued real estate partners will continue to see the same, unmatched benefits from the site: namely, advertising to millions of potential home buyers each month and thousands of qualified leads sent to MSN House & Home's Realtor partners nationwide every day."

MSN 8 is launching at the same time as AOL's 8.0 version, creating one of the most intense rivalries in the tech world in some time. The tech world, rocked by plummeting stock prices, corporate scandals, and lack of innovations, has had little good news to announce in a long time.

The advantage to having a related portal to an ISP is the ability to negotiate partnerships and command advertising fees. As a popular choice in ISPs, MSN 8 will immediately lead any subscriber who doesn't alter his or her home page to MSN.com to look at the various channels.

The House & Home channel on AOL is one of the most popular, ranking in the top three channels in terms of visitors, according to Homestore officials, the operator of the channel.

While MSN spokespersons were unavailable for further comment, due to the launch, it is unknown where the House and Home ranks on MSN.

What the announcement does do is help clarify where the home channel ranks in MSN's army.

When it was first introduced in 1998, HomeAdvisor was positioned a stand-alone real estate portal, part of a technologies services division that was in the beginning stages of a spin-off IPO from MSN. It's greatest rival was Homestore. The tech wreck of 2000 changed all that, and pieces of the company were sold, while the consumer portal was integrated back into the MSN family. Meanwhile a confusing round of press releases were issued back and forth for months. Homestore and HomeAdvisor alternately proclaimed themselves victors in war for consumer eyeballs. According to Media Metrix figures, the portals battled it out over number of visitors, stickiness, and other metrics.

HomeAdvisor, now called The House and Home channel, is now more of an information channel than it ever was before. Unlike other portals which showcase listings as the main event, MSN's House and Home channel is a complete guide to homebuying, full of calculators and comparisons of all kinds. Listings are a lower priority, which can only be found after scrolling down the front page.

While tools were what the site was known for before, Realtors may still be unaware that HomeAdvisor never targeted them for personal marketing products such as Web sites and that the advertising of listings on the site was and is still free.

A related issue is whether or not HomeAdvisor will continue to pay MLSs for listings. With listings on the back burner, judging from their position on the home page, there hardly seems to be an incentive.

To further distance it from its listings-centric past, the consumer channel no longer has a stand-alone URL. Instead, consumers reach the house and home channel via a second tier domain name. This is the most telling change of all that the listings war is in retreat.

No longer will HomeAdvisor have to compete with Homestore for ratings, which is excellent news for Homestore and Realtor.com.

Instead the house and home channel will help MSN in its battle against AOL.

MSN vs. AOL - gotta love it.

Published: October 25, 2002

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