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Time Warner Considering Demerging with AOL
Gracenotes writes "According to the Daily Telegraph, America Online CEO Jonathan Miller notes that AOL might be successful enough to break away from Time Warner and still remain in business. According to Miller, AOL is providing many online services, which provide competition against Google, Yahoo, and other rivals. Since its merger with Time Warner and plummet in value, such features have been increasingly emphasized."
AOL might be successful enough to break away from Time Warner and still remain in business
Can anyone actually think of a reason this is good news?
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In the UK I suspect a lot of run of the mill ISPs will die out with Sky (news corps UK satellite service) and mobile phone companies like Orange offering free broadband to their customers. I'm not sure why ntl:Telewest our biggest cable company has still not offered the service free yet but I'm sure they will so they don't lose out to Sky.
But with most people getting broadband for free once these rollouts complete the only market for a subscription ISP will be for those that need something the free ISPs don't offer (static IP's, usenet, etc), that's not an AOL niche.
Yes it's an Internet provider, but it's also a content provider, a portal provider, and many other things.
AOL as a content provider is a sure loser. If you were trying to get to the largest possible audience with your product (TV show, music, etc...) would you go with a provider that has such a miniscule user base and lock out the rest?
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
I don't think AOL is dying. A free aol that offers search, mail, IM, and content under one umbrella is exactly what google is assembling. The concept of AOL is alive and well. We can definitely talk about implementation and how one differs from another, but frankly, the user is becoming less aware of what goes on under the hood as time goes along, not more. The concept of an all in one place for everything on a dumbed down terminal is becoming more practical to the end user. And in key places, AOL still has mindshare that it can leverage and a user base that it can monetize.
It needs new leadership, but to me AOL represents an opportunity, not a loss.
un burrito me trampeó.
Of course, if your family members (even mom and dad) were using the web starting back at Netscape 1.x, it's way easier to get them to use Firefox.
"Oh, this? It's the latest version of Netscape. Oh, and mom, email is now in a separate program so it loads faster. You just double-click this icon that looks like an envelope with a bird on it."
Did I mention that my mother doesn't do much web browsing? I think she's happier now that "Netscape" has email as a separate program.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
Agreed, and they seem to be working hard to alienate those users as fast as possible. I was recently helping an older woman get her computer feet back under her after a couple of years off. She was already familiar with AOL and wanted to keep using it. The problem was that the home page must have had 200 different links/buttons/pictures on it. Just finding her email or favorites etc was like some sick version of "Where's Waldo". It certainly wasn't easy. Add to that the fact that they seem to have moved all their support people over to India and I don't see any reason why even a beginner would want to use their service.
His post was actually a perfect example of why you should do some research before throwing a big rant. He said that the only thing keeping AOL afloat were people's attachments to email addresses and such, when those email addresses are now free. How does that keep them afloat exactly? Same goes for little old ladies, they can use AOL for free in conjunction with any other service, and still retain their "training wheels." What it does prove is that their business strategy has shifted to other venues, not making people dependent on their ISP.
I'm no fan of AOL, but have a low tolerance for misinformation. I've seen people say that AOL still uses 8 character email addresses in similar rants. Times change, what is true in 1995 doesn't hold forever.