Previous to the days of Zillow you had a dig fairly deep on the web to find information about home values given an address. Previous to the days of the Internet you had to obtain the public records, usually for a nominal fee, at the local county clerks office (or some other such local governmental entity).
Postbubble, Lifehacker, and Tech.Life.Blogged, [are](http://www.postbubble.com/2006/07/19/yahoo-brings-zillow-to-the- mainstream/) [all](http://lifehacker.com/software/real-estate/find-your- bosses-home-value-with-zillow-and-yahoo-188543.php) [reporting](http://www.techlifeweb.com/2006/07/how-much-is-your-home- worth.html) a new partnership between Yahoo! and Zillow.
Now, by partnerning with Yahoo!, Zillow is now in the “mainstream” and no longer a site that you heard about from your Aunt Ida at the last family reunion. In fact, Yahoo! has setup a special search and portal dedicated to leveraging this information. So, with this increased ease of access to public information, your privacy level just got chipped down a bit.