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Broadband and the Internet Contents | Entire Site Contents
The AOL Sweepstakes - A Pirate's Booty
Time Warner is fielding offers for AOL, which has grabbed the
attention of MSN, Google and Yahoo. So, what does it all mean in
the search engine wars?
Horse and Buggy - AOL
In one of the great bum rushes of all time, Time Warner and AOL
merged in 2000. Although it was actually AOL that purchased Time
Warner, those in the search engine game snickered at the
prospects of the new supposed media giant. Time Warner
executives apparently failed to realize AOL was going to have
major problems as surfers switched from dial-up to broadband
Internet access. Well, Time Warner knows it now and is looking
to sell.
As is well known, AOL has an antiquated business model since it
dominates a dial-up market that is circling the proverbial
drain. As DSL and cable broadband services become widespread,
members are bailing on AOL at a prolific pace of millions a
year. Time Warner appears to be seeking some way to get out of
the loss of revenues, but who would buy a company that missed
out on the evolutionary process?
Market Share
Despite the dire outlook, AOL still has tons of members. In
fact, between 20 and 21 million people still use the platform.
In a very smart move, AOL has also opened itself up to
non-members, a move which has resulted in former subscribers
continuing to use AOL.com even though they are now on broadband.
These numbers represent a significant chunk of the domestic
Internet search engine market.
While Yahoo has decided to try to gouge sites with Site Match
instead of
entering the AOL fray, MSN and Google consider it
another part of their ongoing war. There are a variety of
reasons for this war, foremost being Google's penchant for
swiping...err, hiring executives from Microsoft. With AOL, MSN
has a chance to punch back.
Google provides search results to AOL. The Google Adwords
advertisements are all over AOL. Hmmm...anyone see why MSN might
want AOL? If MSN were to purchase AOL, you can be assured Google
would be shown the proverbial door as soon as possible.
Keep an eye on this situation because it the proverbial catch-22
situation. How much is MSN willing to pay for the short term
benefits of controlling AOL while knowing it is a turkey in the
long term? More so, how much can Google drive up the price MSN
is willing to pay? Will Google panic and buy a chunk of AOL to
stop MSN? Whatever the result, it will make for good reading.
Whether you like it or not, MSN is finally getting off the mat
in the search engine games. It is launching a pay-per-click
service for MSN.com, which means Overture or whatever Yahoo is
calling it these days is going to lose some luster. If MSN takes
the plunge on AOL, it will pick up search engine market share
and become a bigger player. With software sales lagging, many
think MSN is looking to the Internet as a way to generate
revenues.
Let the fun begin.
About the author:
Halstatt Pires is with the Internet marketing firm -
http://www.marketingtitan.com - a San Diego Internet marketing
and advertising company.
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