Zillow, the online home valuation service that launched to a flurry of attention last month, is getting some competition. Internet Brands, previously known as Carsdirect, launched today a similar home valuation service as part of its RealEstateABC.com property, which it acquired in September.

It must have been nice for the six weeks that Benchmark Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures-backed Zillow had this market to itself but with barriers to entry so low, competition was inevitable. For Zillow, the truth is, better Idealab-backed Internet Brands than Google taking them on.

There are differences between the two services:
1) Zillow's is immensely more attractive and more fun to use. For example, RealEstateABC's site doesn't divide each home according to lot lines overlaid onto the map as does Zillow. Also, zeroing in on a specific home is much slicker on Zillow. The pin that points to the home you're trying to value on RealEstateABC's service identified the wrong homes when I tested it out.
2) Both are interactive, but in different ways. Zillow allows you to refine your home's estimate by providing information about additions or remodels. Internet Brands offers sliding tools that enable a user to adjust their estimate based on home noise or view.
3) Internet Brands' estimates seemed more accurate than Zillow's, at least in the homes in my neighborhood.

With each of these companies aiming to capture a piece of the mortgage brokerage and real estate brokerage advertising dime, there is certainly more than enough to go around. Those two industries reap $90 billion in annual commissions combined. But, one of these online home valuation services will end up on top and it won't just come down to the user friendliness of the site. I assume Internet Brands' release is a draft version and they will quickly improve their user interface just as Zillow will refine its valuation algorithm.

This battle between these two venture-backed startups will come down to management. I've spoken to both Zillow CEO Rich Barton and Internet Brands CEO Robert Brisco in the past and was impressed by them both. Barton first helped launch HomeAdvisor at Microsoft and then built up Expedia into the behemoth it is today. Brisco drove Carsdirect to the number one online car retailing spot and used that leverage to expand aggressively into home finance, real estate and travel verticals. Whoever ends up on top, this will be a battle worth watching. — Joshua Jaffe

Go to Internet Brands' press release
Go to Zillow's blog
Go to The Deal's story about Internet Brands
Go to The Deal's story about Zillow

Technorati tags: zillow, benchmark, vc, venture capital, internetbrands, idealab