In a pretty significant annoucement domain.com.au has done a deal with ninemsn.com.au to run the property section of the ninemsn.com.au website.

Going to property on the site will take you to this site – http://ninemsn.domain.com.au/ which is similar to how realestate.com.au was integrated with ninemsn.com.au. It brings domain.com.au content into the site but displays in a separate site to the normal www.domain.com.au. The reason for this is no doubt to give ninemsn.com.au control over advertising on this site, which Domain can not do on its own site for obvious reasons.

This will no doubt significantly increase traffic to domain.com.au, and I think is a very wise move. For many years now I have felt that domain.com.au has not been aggressive enough in competing against realestate.com.au. This and the ebay deal mark a significant change in strategy and indicates that they are getting serious about trying to take realestate.com.au on and not simply remain the distant 2nd portal in Australia.

To catch up to realestate.com.au is a big task and it is going to take a lot more than just this deal, but I think it is a real positive and is certainly making me look at domain.com.au in a different light (a more favourable one).