When AOL splits, Where do we end up?

The Great Divide

Time Warner plans to split AOL into two factions, an advertisement unit and a dial-up unit. The plan will be to sell off each unit to potential buyers.

Dial-up users do not make up the majority on AOL so giving them away won’t be such a big deal. Plus this means that AOL will finally have no use for India call centers, although they still might work as online tech support.

The advertising unit also known as Platform A, accounts for the whole AOL community, but mainly focuses on Ad.com. Platform A consists of tons of websites and brands all across the internet. Its a very lucrative spot to potential buyers as they will have ad spots in tons of areas including the massive AIM user base.

I am a Dial-up User, Where do I go?

Earthlink has been in talks to take over dial-up subscribers. I believe dial-up users will be switched over to an entirely new Earthlink email address, Their AOL account will automatically be switched over to free and they will be encouraged to use both emails. This is just purely speculation.

I am a Broadband User, Where do I go?

As for the advertisement unit, it looks like we’ll end up joining Microsoft or Yahoo, or hopefully someone else who wants to step up to the plate.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

The most interesting part of this merger is the drama between each of the major companies. Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are battling it out to gain the largest footprint over internet advertisement revenue. If AOL merges with Yahoo, Microsoft gets upset. If AOL merges with Microsoft, Google gets upset. Added to this problem includes the recent deal Yahoo and Google are making to share advertisement plans. Microsoft isn’t so happy about that either and wants the decision blocked. I’m hoping neither of these companies buy AOL. As you can see its already a tangled mess. Joining forces with AOL will only complicate matters.

If Microsoft or Yahoo does indeed buy AOL, interoperability will finally be on the table. Whoever buys AOL will now have to integrate all AOL screennames together with the buyer’s IM service. For the first time we may finally have AIM with the ability to add Microsoft and Yahoo subscribers to the buddy list. I know many have have been clamoring for that.

The other great feature is advertisement revenue. Now Yahoo or Microsoft will have an even larger audience to host advertisements, including non-AOL owned websites that Ad.com serves.

The Buzz Around the Internets

There seems to be no agreement as to who should buy AOL. One thought is that If Microsoft buys AOL, it could allow Yahoo to prove themselves to investors that they can run independent of Microsoft. Another speculates that AOL won’t be able to save the Microsoft brand. We may find ourselves watching the same thing happen years from now when Microsoft announces it will try to sell off AOL.

During this battle, users are always the victims. If I were to choose a company that could attempt to save the AOL community to bring them back together, I would choose Yahoo. Yahoo has proven its expertise in this aspect with sites such as Yahoo Groups and Yahoo Answers.

What do you think will happen to AOL?

Post a comment on your ideas and thoughts as to what might happen to AOL. You’ll have to wait until 2009 its announced what plans AOL will be forced to make.

Myspace makes Mail Searchable with Google Gears

Google Gears, the service that uses your desktop to power features that would naturally be handled by the web, has now announced its first major deployment. With Google Gears, Myspace now allows searchable mail. Now with that being established, we’d like to see offline viewing of mail,  offline viewing of your friends list, and maybe even offline editing of your profile.

Gmail Custom Time: Google’s April Fools Joke.

Every year Google releases yet another April Fools joke, professionally done to the point where it seems quite useful until you read more into it. Last year’s joke was set on creating broadband internet through toilets coincidentally during the height of the FCC wireless auction.

This year’s theme is sending email back through time. Your only limited to 10 emails per user. Unfortunately they did not add this button on the compose mail page making this joke a mere failure.

Now if only the subject heading said “Happy Wedding Anniversary”

Suggestions for Google Talk Chat Widget

Google released a little web application called Google Talk Chatback Badge, where can chat with everyone who visits your website. Google hasn’t added any robust new features against its current competition. We might as well call it the Charlie Brown of chat widgets. Unlike MeeboMe, and Aim Wimzi, you have to click on it in order to initiate a chat session, and there are tons of useful features left out to give that could give this Plain Jane a boost. Its only shining quality is how neat and tidy it looks with the rest of your site.

Color Schemes

It could use some colors. white and blue reminds me of the old days of the web. At least the quote bubble is curvy.

Flash Embed Option

It needs a Flash version. iFrames are too exploitable, and I’d even advocate for web browsers to ask whether to load content in an IFrame just to reduce javascript attacks by a considerable amount. Since its iFrame, there is no anyway to put this on your Myspace page, so people please don’t ask about it.

Badge Saving For Later Use

Currently, it just generates a code everytime you visit the page, which defaults to your real first and last name, or whatever name you set up in your Google Account. If you had previously set up a nickname, it will get lost if you need it again for whatever reason. You’ll have to retype the nickname again to generate the code.

Guest Names For Each Person

Guests should be able to set their nickname and each Guest should be assigned a unique number. Currently all Guests respond as Guest, making it confusing at times.

Thats about it. Knowing Google, these suggestions, if they do consider them, will get added quietly.

Use AIM in GMail

Today, Gmail released their first integration with AIM. You can sign into your screen name and it will display your most popular contacts. Gmail will automatically store all conversations so you’ll never lose any logs, it also supports friendly names. That’s all there is to it. Its not something spectacular but at least they did something.. and this took over a year to do.. Still there is no way to contact Gmail users using Aim 6.5, and there hasn’t been any news on the plan to completely integrate AIM with Gmail. In unrelated news, AOL plans to roll out a brand new update to their message board system. Almost daily, AOL’s message board system receives very critical responses about their lack of features and their use of annoying advertisements.