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October 2, 2007 5:52 AM PDT

Rumor: AOL to turn Wow.com into 'World of Warcraft' social network

by Caroline McCarthy

I'm a smidgen skeptical of this rumor, if only because it seems so darn obvious: TechCrunch reported on Tuesday morning that Time Warner's AOL may have found a use for its Wow.com domain, which it acquired in 1998 as part of the offal of what had once been CompuServe.

The source's big scoop? Wow.com has been transferred to the AOL Games division and will become a World of Warcraft social network. If this turns out to be true, expect plenty of level-28 half-elf mages to be typing "Wow.com" into their browsers soon.

It does indeed make sense for the newly Gothamized AOL to use the domain in such a way. Maybe even too much sense, considering some of the company's faux pas in recent years.

TechCrunch's Michael Arrington aptly points out, however, that there are plenty of other World of Warcraft social networks out there--then there's also the fact that the wildly popular online role-playing game from Blizzard, famously lampooned in South Park, is really sort of a social network in its own right.

But you've got to admit that there are some much more heavily clogged niches that AOL could've chosen to dive into with a hot domain name like that. You know, like social news.

Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline.
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AOL WOW SN?
by MickBurke October 2, 2007 7:44 AM PDT
Isn't "World of Warcraft" and "Social" a contradiction to start with?
Reply to this comment
funny!
by fortyonejb October 2, 2007 8:43 AM PDT
ha ha ha ha, oh except for your wrong. MMOS are not the anti-social escape those who dont play them imagine them to be. In fact most people who play develop ties with other players. Is it a different type of social? yeah, but its still social interaction
no half elves in the game
by SMIDMIKE October 2, 2007 10:24 PM PDT
Just wanted to chime in cause it kinda irked me to see you talk about the game and not know much about it.
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World of Warcraft cheats
by grimhair October 12, 2007 4:43 PM PDT
For World of Warcraft cheats, dupes, exploits, bots and hacks go to http://www.exploitsrus.com/wow.html
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About The Social

CNET News' Caroline McCarthy is a downtown Manhattanite who believes that, despite popular opinion, the Web can actually help your social life. She's happily addicted to fun social-media tools from Twitter to Yelp to Facebook, sends an inordinate number of text messages, and has a tendency to waste time at the office reading restaurant blogs. Here, she explores all facets of the Web's gregarious side, as well as the unique tech culture in her home city of New York. (Don't call it Silicon Alley.)

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