REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 21, 1998 — The Microsoft HomeAdvisor ™ online real estate service, the first comprehensive guide to finding homes and loans, today announced an exclusive agreement with InfoSpace.com that will make HomeAdvisor the featured mortgage service provider for the upcoming InfoSpace.com Loan Center. The agreement makes the HomeAdvisor industry-leading loan products and home-buying tools directly available to users of several InfoSpace.com services, as well as an impressive list of InfoSpace.com syndication partners. The complete range of HomeAdvisor services, real estate listings and tutorials will also be available through links on the InfoSpace.com home page at http://www.infospace.com/ .
The announcement comes less than a week after HomeAdvisor inked an exclusive distribution agreement with GeoCities, in which HomeAdvisor became the exclusive real estate listing provider for GeoCities’ new Real Estate Center. These two exclusive alliances build on an already impressive list of marketing agreements that give HomeAdvisor the broadest distribution of any real estate or mortgage site on the Web. HomeAdvisor also announced alliances with several leading portals and Internet sites when it officially launched last month, including Yahoo!, Infoseek, Pathfinder, DoubleClick and many others.
“The breadth and depth of the marketing agreements we’ve put in place over the past month, including the agreement with InfoSpace, are quickly making HomeAdvisor one of the most visited real estate and mortgage sites on the Internet,”
said Ian Morris, lead product manager for HomeAdvisor.
“Our real estate and mortgage partners are very happy with the broad national exposure that their products are already receiving, and we’re excited to bring these great services to the nearly 2 million monthly visitors at InfoSpace.”
“We’re committed to giving our users the best tools and educational information available on the Internet today,”
said Naveen Jain, president and CEO of InfoSpace.
“Microsoft HomeAdvisor offers our customers not only a wide range of loan offerings, but advice and tips throughout the home-buying process that are second to none. It’s by far the most powerful tool on the Web for home buyers today, and we’re proud to add it to the many top content providers available on InfoSpace.com and our syndication partners.”
About InfoSpace
InfoSpace.com is a leading aggregator and integrator of content services that it syndicates to a broad network of affiliates, including existing and emerging Internet portals, destination sites and suppliers of PCs and other Internet access devices, such as cellular phones, pagers, screen phones, television set-top boxes, online kiosks and personal digital assistants. The company focuses on content with broad appeal, such as yellow pages and white pages, maps, classified advertisements, real-time stock quotes, information on local businesses and events, weather forecasts and horoscopes. By aggregating content from multiple sources and integrating it with related content to increase its usefulness, the company serves as a single source of value-added content.
The company’s Internet affiliates include AOL (NYSE
“AOL”
), Netscape (Nasdaq
“NSCP”
), Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
), Lycos (Nasdaq
“LCOS”
), go2net Inc.’s MetaCrawler (Nasdaq
“GNET”
), Playboy (NYSE
“PLA”
), Dow Jones (The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition), ABC LocalNet (NYSE
“DIS”
) and CBS’s affiliated TV stations (NYSE
“CBS”
). In addition, the company has development agreements with a number of providers of Internet access devices including PCs by Acer America, Gateway 2000 and Pixel (for Packard Bell NEC), cellular phones by AT & T Wireless (NYSE
“T”
) and UnWired Planet, pagers by WolfeTech (for Motorola), screen phones by InfoGear, Mitel, Mitsui and Lucent, television set-top boxes by American Interactive Media, @Home, @World, Lucent, On Command, Planetweb and Source Media, online kiosks by King kiosk platform and Lexitech kiosk platform, and personal digital assistants by AT & T Wireless, InfoGear and UnWired Planet.
About HomeAdvisor
HomeAdvisor is the Internet’s most complete guide for finding homes and loans, combining Microsoft technology with services and expertise from the most trusted names in the real estate industry. It empowers consumers through every step of the home-buying process and is the first Internet site to fully integrate content and services such as neighborhood, crime and school statistics with homes, loans, editorial content and expert advice. Part of The Microsoft Network of online products and services, HomeAdvisor launched in July 1998 and is free on the World Wide Web at http://www.homeadvisor.com (connect-time charges may apply).
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
Microsoft and HomeAdvisor are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be 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.
