Nine years ago, it seemed like a great idea to merge a popular internet site with mainstream media. Certainly today you can see that it was, with sites like you Tube and Hulu, and most TV networks offering their own video downloads. Unfortunately, the merger of Time Warner and AOL never quite took, even as internet speeds increased.
An article announcing the end of the ill-fated deal in the Washington Post explained that AOL has said in recent months that it will focus on content, advertising and social networking.
In terms of content, the company owns a hodgepodge of popular offerings, such as Mapquest and the gossip site TMZ.com.
Advertising will see them competing with Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Not easy competition.
And social networking hasn’t been their forte since they introduced the world to concepts and features like buddy lists and community sites. Last year they made an attempt to get back in the game, acquiring social-networking site Bebo for $850 million, but the site has largely missed the buzz and user momentum that its competitors have had.
Tech pundit Rob Enderle said, “AOL is largely irrelevant on the Web, but they have a powerful brand. They need to figure out how to be hip and relevant again. They’re not going to get there by trying to out-Google Google, or out-Facebook Facebook or out-Twitter Twitter. They have to figure out a space they can own.”
Their powerful brand is now part of film history, with a film whose title echoes AOL’s famous and oft-heard phrase “You’ve Got Mail”. This 1998 Warner Bros. film starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan may have been the beginning of the not-so-beautiful partnership. According to the Internet Movie Database, both lead characters used AOL’s version 4.0 software, which was in beta testing mode when the film was being made. AOL now offers version 9.1.
Tags: Internet Speeds