What the Google-AOL deal means for users

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For video, there are questions that remained unanswered.

For instance, the companies said they will collaborate on online video search and showcase AOL's premium video service within Google Video. Specifically, Google will link to AOL video from the home page of Google Video and may have an AOL logo at the bottom of the page with an "in partnership with" message, as well as include and index AOL video content as part of Google video search, said Mayer.

But it is unclear what part AOL's Singingfish video search service will play and whether Google users will have access to Time Warner's vast film library and other video resources.

A Google spokesman could not go into further details on the matter, and an AOL spokesman declined further comment.

"Am I going to get 'Featured Videos' on the home page now like over at Yahoo Video, where I'm almost certain the only thing making them 'featured' is arrangements with content providers?" wondered Sullivan in his blog posting. "If so--or if AOL gets any type of presence on the Google Video home page at all--that's a radical departure for Google."

As far as the instant messaging interoperability of AIM and Google Talk, Google Talk users will have to sign up for an AIM account to be able to add AIM buddies to their list and chat with them, Mayer said.

This could give a big boost to Google Talk, which is ranked at least sixth in the United States, behind AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ and Trillian, according to ComScore Media Metrix.

"That's a huge deal for Google because AOL is the market leader in instant messaging," Gary Price, news editor at Search Engine Watch, said in an interview. "For the user experience, that's going to be a huge thing."

[MrNougat]

Past trends

So Google has a stake in AOL/Time Warner. Time Warner is looking pretty hard to dump AOL now. Maybe Google will buy AOL and make it free, just like they've done with everything else they've bought.

Someone explain this business model, please? Buy up stuff, make it way cooler, give it away for free. How do you make money doing that?

[icenfrosty]

Simply Put

with their main search unit(adsense/adwords) making so much money this allows them to do r&d and m&a of other projects to develop products and sit on a business model until the market provides a profitable model for them.

their main market is eyeballs.. so as many eyes you get the more $$ you make.

http://www.binaryfrost.com

[agent V]

the money is in the advertising

and of course, it is smart to buy things, make the beta's free and charge for "pro" versions. everyone benefits and google still makes bank.

[Earl Benser]

It's hard to imagine....

... what Google finds in AOL that's of value. Maybe it's the poor
dolts who still pay AOL for internet service. It certainly isn't the
quality of the AOL interface, home page, or the swamp of
services AOL tries to provide. I gave upon AOL years ago, and I
have been successful in getting friends and family onto quality
local ISP's who don't believe that they have to provide tons of
usually worthless features.

But Google seems to think that there actually is a reason to get
involved with AOL. That could become a very expensive mistake.
I don't see it as any serious source for profit.

[Bob Brinkman]

you used aol......

ouch.

[Cyrus_K]

It means more Hoax about Google by Big media

What does Google paying $1Bill to AOL-Time-warner-CNN mean??
What would it mean if someone paid you Tons of money!
It means the many 100s of their media outlets from Fortune magazine,
to Business Week, to etc. etc. will
just about every day hammer into people's mind that Google is the
best search engine and "oh how cool" are their geeky looking founders
and therefore we must get our search results (information) from them.
It means true Big brother at work.
On one hand Big media (AOL-Time-warner-CNN mean) hype Google &
Yahoo as the best search engine and OTOH Google & Yahoo pump
Billions of dollars into the pocket of these media outlets.

But I have found a search engine that is actually good for the people,
it is called AnooX: (http://www.anoox.com/)
Why is it better, you can read here about it here:
http://www.anoox.com/whyanooxsrbetter.jsp
Go People Power, Go AnooX.

[Meryl Arbing]

Thanks for the alternatives

All it means to me is that I will be visitng AOL pages even LESS often than I currently do...since I never use Google for any searching and NEVER click on ANY of the advertising (SPAM) links they sponsor. I hope that everybody else will do the same and reduce their click count (and revenue) to ZERO.

[208774626618253979477959487856]

Message has been deleted.

[PCCRomeo]

What?

What does that link in your post have to do with anything related to Google or AOL for that matter?

[assman]

CNET way to be a total ass

i dont think there is any chance that google will display banner ads anywhere on their site, ever.

especially since google has promised that it won't happen and besides they wouldnt do something so incredibly stupid that will surely only slaughter their reputation.

cnet seems to be convinced that it will happen no matter what. nice try.

and also with the biased search, comon they havent sunk that low ever before why would they suddenly decide to **** everyone off just for the hell of it?

i believe there will only be small changes and the most major change will be the interoperability of google talk and AIM. They might be able to talk to eachother in the future.

also google wants aol's vast user base. so generally, there won't be major changes to the way google works (the way we know and love), BECAUSE that would simply be idiotic.

and im done.

[jasonemanuelson1]

Could have been better

If you were half professional in this comment, it would hold a lot
more weight, but in this age of just speaking one's mind without
grammar or respect, you make yourself look lower than the
company you are commenting on.

c|net is not perfect, nor will they ever be. But, poor language
and grammar only make you look like you are ranting, rather
than making solid points, even if you are making solid points.
The foul language only subtracts from your comments, not to
mention is against the Terms of Use that you agreed to when
you posted.

Making comments is a great thing, but making them mean
something is all determined upon how the comments are made.

[ip_fresh]

Google

Google will not do anything to give AOL sites an unfair advantage in the search results...

David
http://www.media-press-release.com
http://www.blueairnews.com

[208774626618253979477959487856]

Go Google!

http://www.analogstereo.com/xm_samsung_helix.htm

[balmermanj]

This will defenetly give Google Talk a big boost

This will defenetly give Google Talk a huge boost. I'm glad that I will be able to use my Google talk to communicate with all my friends on AIM. My only worry is if the sounds and font was to change on Google talk. Part of what I enjoy of Google talk, is it's simplicity. It's lack of annoying sounds, and distracting hard to read fonts while still having a good look and just plain being effective. I don't want the AOL deal to take that away, but I do want interpobility.