Ever feel like you keep hearing about the same real estate topics in the media over and over again.  And wonder, why are we stuck talking about this subject.  Has any progress really been made? 

Sometimes if you step back and look in the rear view mirror, you can see just how far the real estate community has come.  wwww.archive.org is a site dedicated to building a digital library of the history of popular websites.  You can enter a web address into their "wayback machine" and get a snapshot of what a site looked like in years past.  When you see where sites like http://www.realtor.com/ started, it is easier to see how far they have come.  Fun to even look how much Zillow has changed in the 16 months since its launch. 

Many times the pictures don't load well on the site, but you will get the main idea. 

Realtor.com- 

Janaury 3, 2001 - http://web.archive.org/web/20010103224100/http://www.realtor.com/  (check out the little "search for a home" box in the upper left hand corner)

January 24, 2002 - http://web.archive.org/web/20011217043526/www.realtor.com/default.asp?hm=on&poe=realtor  (guess they figured out people wanted to primarily search for homes on a real estate website)

January 4, 2003 - http://web.archive.org/web/20030603224911/realtor.com/Default.asp?poe=realtor  (for the most part, this layout stuck until this year)

Zillow.com

November 24, 2004 - http://web.archive.org/web/20041121055020/http://www.zillow.com/ (what was the site going to be???  Top secret at this time)

February 9, 2006 - http://web.archive.org/web/20060209020550/http://zillow.com/ (the pictures load funny, but a lot of progress has been made in a year)

Others Worth Noting 

HomeGain- May 10, 2000 - http://web.archive.org/web/20000510005354/http://www.homegain.com/

ActiveRain.com - July 9, 2005 - http://web.archive.org/web/20051028051122/activerain.com/

Remax.com - August 15, 2000- http://web.archive.org/web/20000815105139/http://www.remax.com/index.html

Homes.com- May 30, 2000 - http://web.archive.org/web/20000530222829/http://www8.homes.com/

Realestate.com - February 28, 2000 - http://web.archive.org/web/20000229153042/http://www.realestate.com/

Craigslist.com - November 10, 1999 - http://web.archive.org/web/19991110033547/http://www.craigslist.com/ (when Craig used to just be a San Fran thing)

Warning- You can waste a lot of time on this site!