REDMOND, Wash., March 23, 2001 — Microsoft Corp. today unveiled a significant expansion of the MSN® HomeAdvisor™
online home and real estate guide, adding to the real estate and mortgage content that has already made HomeAdvisor the top-rated home-buying site on the Web. The new site features content areas for decorating, food and gardening as well as a fully integrated site design. With this additional content, HomeAdvisor continues to help consumers with every home-related decision and further establishes its position as the Internet’s most comprehensive resource for everything about the home.
The site expansion comes just days after HomeAdvisor announced that, according to Media Metrix, the site has doubled consumer traffic in the past six months, and grown at three times the rate of its closest competitor. In addition, HomeAdvisor has seen dramatic growth in the number of home searches conducted by consumers each month, and as a result, the site is sending more than 5,000 leads a day to its real estate partners. More new features are expected in the coming months.
The launch of HomeAdvisor’s content is a logical addition to the site’s existing collection of real estate tools and resources. According to a spring 2001 survey by Internet research firm @Plan Inc., 33 percent of all Internet users are interested in gardening, 12 percent are interested in gourmet cooking and 10 percent are interested in landscaping. In response to the growing consumer demand for online access to this type of home-related information, the latest additions to HomeAdvisor offer visitors tools and services such as practical tips, guides and resources to address consumers’ needs.
Along with newly added content and categories, the overall design and navigation of HomeAdvisor has been greatly enhanced to offer visitors even faster access to the site’s expanded content, which includes detailed guides, suggestions, instructions and illustrations throughout. Following three straight recognitions as the best home-buying site by Gomez Inc., as well as the Gold Star rating as the top home-buying site by Yahoo! Internet Life, HomeAdvisor extends its category leadership with today’s expansion and further showcases the consumer-friendly tools and extensive resources widely recognized as the industry’s best.
“HomeAdvisor is already widely recognized as the No. 1 site in the home-buying category, and this exciting new upgrade expands our award-winning content, tools and services to help consumers find solutions for every home-related decision,”
said Ian Morris, product unit manager for MSN HomeAdvisor.
The new content sections on HomeAdvisor include the following:
-
Garden. The Garden section offers consumers a wealth of information and resources to help them care for and maintain a variety of landscaping and gardening options, including how-to guides, seasonal to-do lists, and problem-solving tips for indoor/outdoor plants, trees and shrubs, lawns, flowers, landscaping, and more.
-
Food. In the Food section, consumers will find guides and tips on entertaining, tableware/settings, kitchen tools, food preparation, cooking basics and recipes. Cooks can also search for recipes in nine categories to find the perfect recipe for every event, whether it’s a casual Sunday brunch, a quick and easy family dinner, or a special-occasion meal for two.
-
Decorate. The Decorate section offers tips on interior changes, shopping, projects or creations to help update a home’s look and feel on a range of budgets. Consumers can also find advice on interior design (colors, texture, fabric, furniture arrangement), hot trends (seasonal colors, style information) and quick and easy improvements, such as making storage space more efficient or creating a functional home office.
About MSN HomeAdvisor
MSN HomeAdvisor is the Internet’s most complete guide for finding everything about the home. With fully integrated content and services ranging from improving and maintaining to buying and financing a home, HomeAdvisor is one of the most trusted names in the online real estate category. Named Best Online Home-Buying Site on the Web by Gomez in the last three consecutive Internet Home-Buying Scorecards, HomeAdvisor was also named Best Overall Home-Buying Site by Yahoo! Internet Life, is a PC Magazine Top 100 Web site and a Family PC Web Site of the Month. Part of the MSN network of Internet services, HomeAdvisor can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.homeadvisor.com/ .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft, MSN and HomeAdvisor are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft® Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.
