Comments on: Google, Time Warner strike $1 billion deal on AOL

The search giant takes a 5 percent stake in America Online for closer ties on ads, IM and video.

[jegrant]

Interesting to see the Google-AOL IM partnership

But, does this mean AOL will open up and support Jabber? That would be nice.

[icenfrosty]

Sounds like it.

From what /. article says... "Under this new agreement, among many other things, Google Talk will now interface with AOL's instant messenger according to the announcement on Google's site."

AOL needs to open up, there's no reason not too.

http://www.binaryfrost.com

[aabcdefghij987654321]

So much for "Do no evil"

AOL is evil and now Google owns part of them.

[unigamer69]

If AOL is evil...

...would you rather Google own a piece of the evil, or the evil own a piece of Google? ;)

What I'm honestly more worried about is if AOL sticks its nose in too far. Google has come up with some pretty damn cool things... Desktop search and Google Earth, in addition to the original search engine. I hope AOL doesn't put the kabash on it... If AIM is any measure of AOL's originality, it fails. AFAIK, it *still* has no native webcam support (yes, they ARE used for things other than pr0n), and the VoIP support still lags way behind Skype (the king) and even Yahoo (which recently has become more Skype-like).

Just my $0.02US... :D

[City_Of_LA]

I just pray

That we don't see those big, flashy annoying ads everytime I log on to google. Like many others, I despise these ads screaming at you "Please buy my crap!!", but I DO click on google's ads just because they're not intrusive and genuinely helpful. If Google doesn't realise that then they're not as smart as first thought.

[Wildcat0695]

I Agree

If I start seeing Times Square or Vegas on Google, I will find another search engine to use. I like the way Google is set up. Simple and to the point.

[unigamer69]

Very good point

That's one signature feature of Google - it doesn't have flashy ads, or even image ads. The only ads are carefully chosen, unobtrusive, "cute" text ads - these have become a Google trademark. I'd hate to see Google go the way of other sites.

For what it's worth, although it doesn't seem to apply as much anymore, I had a checklist to see how far a free service has declined toward either closing down or becoming paid. It was:

1.) A site with few or no ads begins to become infested with more and more ads - kind of like kudsu.
2.) A bigger red flag: obtrusive ads, especially with sound.
3.) Redirect ads, which get in between you and the content.
4.) Quotas on the free service (at least those which are very restrictive).
5.) Checkmate.

[sancat]

Another Dinosaur Bites the Dust

Business as usual, and dirty practices just lose market when you deal in an almost perfect market - that is the nature of the internet ? almost frictionless, almost perfectly informed, almost ubiquitous. MS is the big loser, now that Google precludes them to buy AOL, the weakest/less expensive player (kind of the American Motors of the pack). Yahoo would be just too expensive and too full of air to buy with MS ?real? money.

What we are seeing now is how two guys, with the simple idea of giving stakeholders what they really want, in less than 10 years take over an old and business as usual company. The Do No Evil thing is not only for the customer (the experience that 99% of us have) but also to announcers, and employees ? the happy new world (hopefully not Huxley?s)

If things go the way they should, MS might fall under the same spell, once the ?little people? loses fear of Linux. Once guys like me feel comfortable installing and supporting a Linux system, the game might be over for MS. And then again, for that to happen, the priesthood that ?owns? Linux, and solves the problems of the servers of the world, should be smart and make things as simple for the non-initiated as it is to unwrap XP and install it. They have to lose a little bit of cachet, and earn the general acceptation.

[microsoft slayer]

Microsuck is left out

Good news!

[NWLB]

Twilight of the AOL-gods.

What we are really seeing is a long and complex war playing out. This isn't a war over the future of AOL, because it doesn't have one. This is a war over who gets to feed on the carcass of AOL.

No matter how you look at things, AOL is dying, yet in its decline there remains great value to players that will long outlast it. AOL represents tens of millions of users who are losing their fear of going someplace else, using a new email address, etc. They have to go someplace, and whomever has the inside track to them will gain considerably if they know what they are doing.

I don't think we should look at this in terms of what AOL will become with help from Google. I think we should view it in terms of how does Google parlay this in the long-term. This was a poker game against Microsuck, and Google won.

If Google is going to buy-out Opera, AOL might finally dump its current IE browsing engine. Google Talk could ultimately be the first Google Service to replace a current AOL service. Blogger would be second. Google might help AOL unscrew its lousy approach towards email. In time, as AOL's dial-up base declines, I could see a vague scenario in which Google uses Gmail as the land-point for remaining AOL mail users (maybe helping preserve their old address'.) Google might be able to offer a client based on some rebuilt varient of Opera-if they buy it out, and replace AOL's faulty software. I can see Google slowing taking over, or co-oping AOL's services, until they effectively absorb all its users.

Somebody needs to remind me if we are mis-reading something here. Isn't 5% of AOL actually AOL-Time-Warner? IE: Time-Warner with its connections to Road Runner, CNN, etc?

[tony_z]

AOL, a web portal...

Yahoo and MSN both have a web portal. It looks like Google is going to buy out AOL and use it as its own web portal.

[NWLB]

Close.

I think Google won't use AOL's as much as migrate people from it to their own.