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A decade ago, Richard Barton launched Expedia.com and helped transform the travel industry by handing consumers the same tools to book reservations that travel agents had long controlled. Now, Barton is applying the same approach to real estate -- and is banking on equally dramatic results. Today, he will unveil a beta-test version of Zillow.

"Crash" is not an image you'd want when launching a real estate website. Yet crash is what real estate appraisal site Zillow.com did Wednesday within hours of its much-ballyhooed debut. The Seattle-based start-up began a public test of its website at 9 p.m. Pacific time Tuesday. By 6 a.m. Wednesday, it was staggering under the weight of more than 300,000 page views, the company said. The site remained inaccessible until the afternoon.

By now, chances are you've been to www.zillow.com and may have concluded that the "zestimate" of your home's value isn't -- make that izn't -- worth the time it took to type in its street address. "Insufficient data" was the bleak verdict from BusinessWeek Online of the much-ballyhooed and anticipated website, which purports to tell you how much your home is worth.

When online home-valuation service Zillow.com debuted in February, much of the positive prelaunch vibe quickly dissipated when viewers noticed their own estimates of their properties' value often differed from those provided by the website. Now, the Seattle-based company is seeking to remedy the situation -- and update its files with minimal effort.

Since the home-valuation website Zillow.com had its well-publicized launch eight months ago, it has taken a lot of flak from its users for being frequently wrong. Now, the Seattle-based site, which allows you to look up the estimated value of your house for free, is accused of purposely being misleading. In a 12-page complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission last week, a leading fair housing advocacy group says Zillow.

Real estate website Zillow.com became an instant hit by telling homeowners -- and their nosy neighbors -- how much their houses might be worth. Now, the Seattle-based company will help owners get the word out about how much they want in a sale. Starting today, Zillow Inc. joins a growing list of websites that allows homeowners and real estate agents to post virtual "For Sale" signs for free. The feature also plugs a hole on the site, which touts a database of more than 60 million U.S.