USA Today’s Kevin Maney has a scoopish piece on AOL. While much of what Maney reveals — the ailing online giant’s plans to offer video search and VoIP — is not new, what is new is that AOL plans to compete in the social networking realm, taking on giants such as MySpace head on by incorporating social networking features into its 42 mil.-strong AIM platform.
AOL will use that clout, and AOL’s substantial music and video offerings, to compete with the red-hot MySpace, owned by News Corp. It should roll out in about eight weeks, AOL says. So many people have AIM and use its popular Buddy Lists to chat with others that “the barrier to getting people to use it would be very low,” Miller says. Clicking on a name in a Buddy List, for instance, could take you directly to that person’s personal website.
Other tidbits from the piece, which is based on an interview with CEO Jonathan Miller:
—AOL will begin this week integrating video search from Truveo, which the company purchased in December.
—AIM will become a “full voice platform,” aiming to compete with Skype.
Cynthia Brumfield at 10:11 AM|Comments(0)
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