Like other publicly held companies, Yahoo! faces keen competition as well as the market's mercurial opinion as to its stock's value. With some huge hurdles in online advertising, it's joined forces with Zillow.com, but the alliance failed to keep Yahoo!'s stock from sinking 20 percent, a punishment reminiscent of the tech-wreck of 2001.

CBS Marketwatch reporter Bambi Francisco blamed the stock rout on a "disappointing second-quarter results," a weak sales forecast for the current quarter and the delay of its new search-advertising technology.

So far, Yahoo!'s stock has fallen 30 percent this year, says Ms. Francisco, for failure to please "momentum investors who expected Yahoo! to raise it's profit forecast, which it has not done for two quarters."

One reason is there are a lot of places that people can advertise online and they want to go where the searchers are, which is why Google likely "makes more profit from each search query" than Yahoo, according to Ms. Francisco.

That means that Yahoo! has to do whatever it can to bring more people to search on its site, so it can earn better margins on its advertisements sold on search results pages and from its branded advertising from across Yahoo's non-search properties.

Enter Zillow. Like viewing homes for sales, consumers enjoy knowing what their homes are worth, and Zillow.com is among the most popular home-valuation services to consumers.

The Zillow.com branded ad will boost Yahoo! Search with a shortcut that allows users to enter their addresses and that leads them to a valuation page where similar homes are featured on an interactive map. Consumers can zoom in to see their neighborhood, its surroundings and other homes.

The Zillow valuation service can also be accessed on Yahoo! Real Estate by clicking on the "What's My Home Worth?" button.

The Yahoo! Real Estate Home page is now loaded with branded advertising including loans from ditech, find a Realtor from HomeGain and find a home or rental from Prudential. Now the search engine site will include home valuations from Zillow, which has its own advertising platform, a partnership with LendingTree and mortgage rates from Bankrate. In addition, the site sells advertising spots to real estate agents.

So what's the point of this story?

None of these sites can do it all for the consumer in one place without handing off the consumer off to an advertising partner, and that's why there's always room to add one more. Yahoo! isn't necessarily the best place to search for homes, get a loan, or get a home valuation because its job as a portal means it doesn't have to excel in every category. All it has to do is provide interest to Internet searchers who will find out on their own who's good and who's not.

Zillow will boost Yahoo!, but only in the short term, until another website comes along that provides better, more accurate home valuations. Consumers will find that the home search on Prudential's ad doesn't have all the listings. What they won't know is that there may be a problem with noncooperation among IDX site owners in which other brokers may not allow Prudential to use their listings in certain areas. A consumer could conclude that Yahoo! isn't the best place to search for homes, find a Realtor, or get a loan.

And then it will be right back where it was -- fighting for its life against a competitor who does it better (and free, for listings) -- until someone else comes along.

Published: July 20, 2006

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Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment. Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's. Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. To contact Blanche, email her at . For more articles by Blanche, click here.