Rich Barton

Is Zillow.com co-founder Rich Barton pilfering ideas from San Francisco rival Trulia?

That's the insinuation in a Trulia blog post today, which points out the similarities between Zillow's new real estate advice forum and Trulia's longer running Voices forum. (I also noted the similarities earlier this week.) But Trulia's post cuts a little deeper, picturing an altered photo of Barton leaning against a Trulia logo. It also notes that the Web site design of RealSelf.com, a Seattle startup backed by Barton, mirrors the light green design of Trulia.

The post is titled "Rich Barton of Zillow hearts Trulia" and concludes with a Trulia employee noting that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

Ahhh, don't you just love a heated rivalry between Internet upstarts? We're waiting for Zillow's response on their blog.

As I pointed out earlier this week, Zillow remains on top of Trulia in terms of traffic and venture funding. Zillow is backed by $87 million -- more than double Trulia's $33 million total -- and counts (internal numbers) an average of 5.4 million unique visitors per month.