AOL+MSN=???
Posted by Harry McCracken | Friday, September 16, 2005 6:57 AM PT
Here's
an intriguing story from the New York Times on reported talks between AOL and Microsoft's MSN. The goal of the discussions isn't completely spelled out in the story, but the gist is that it could result in a combined company that melds AOL's Internet access service with search and portal features from MSN. (Currently, AOL's search is powered by Google.)
The Times says that such a merger would result in the world's largest Internet company, as well as the largest portal (passing Yahoo). But it's not clear to me how you can do the numbers on the deal without knowing all the details and seeing how things shake out.
Like a lot of what's going on on the Web these days, this would all be about Google. Microsoft's goal, says the Times, is to shed MSN's portal features, exit the Internet access business, and get ready to take on Google head-to-head in Internet search.
MSN has a decent search engine and some other good stuff, and, in Hotmail, one of the Web's biggest buckets of users; AOL is a wounded giant that's still figuring out what it wants to do in the post dial-up world. Merging the two might result in a lot of traffic and resources aggregated into one company. It would also power a heckuva lot of searches. But you've got to think it would be a kind of blah, yesterday's-news kind of company...which is not a criticism you can fairly sling at either Google or Yahoo. And probably not a great long-term strategy for toppling either of those Web behemoths.
Update: (via
The Unofficial Google Weblog): If you're into stock-market number-crunching, here's
a good piece from TheSteet.com on the implications of an AOL-MSN marriage (let's call the company AMOSLN for the moment--hey, the domain is available).
thats tight
aol+apple?
That'd be a wonderful news for the netizens, coz with the entry of apple into Web Portals, tht can only be best case scenario for everyone. Imagine apple stepping in and putting in all the great innovations tht it has come to be known for. Tht will only double the innovation rate, with Google already contributing enormously for the Web 2.0 improvements. It wud be aweinspiring, to hv apple onboard with all the cash tht it holds.
Ok well Apple sucks but I respectfully digress.
I have over 130 people on my AOL IM list. I have four on my Yahoo and zero on MSN. I think one of the ONLY things AOL has going for it is its IM, and I think the only reason we still use it is because it is what we had first and don't want to lose the possibility of talking to most friends or long lost buddy list deletions.
The client itself is absolutely detestable, which I had gotten so used to I forgot about until I started using Yahoo! more frequently. If I have another IM ad blast the headphones off my head again I am going to scream. I now use Trillian even though it doesn't have as many features as AIM.
If MSN just snatched up AOL, they wouldn't have to worry about topping Google or Yahoo quite yet. They would already have access to millions upon millions of people through the IM situation. I have to ask myself if MSN made AIM as cool as Yahoo would I use it? :)
Long Live ICQ.............
i eat apples all the time they are good.....oh wait you are talking aabout apple computers they do sucks...sorry!
AOL + MSN. From the article in the NYTimes, Micro$oft wants to take on and take out Google. The problem I see is one of philosophy, Microsoft and AOL have the philosophy of controlling your internet experience, while Google and Yahoo! want you to explore, using their respective sites as your starting point. If it is true that Google wants to develop free desktop software or even an OS that will be powered by advertisement, more power to them.
I suggest the venture will result in Microsoft spending a whole lot of money on something that has been passed over by the Net Community.