If published reports are true, the intrigue surrounding the AOL-MSN-Time Warner-Google courtship has reached a conclusion: Google will buy a 5% stake in AOL and remain AOL’s primary source for advertising. MSN becomes the bridesmaid and Yahoo! (who was never seriously in the mix) moves along its separate path of Internet media dominance.
There are many moving parts here:
1. Google may covet AOL’s large base of email and IM users. The conversion process from aol.com addresses to gmail and Google Talk accounts could be relatively easy given Google’s technological savvy. Such a move puts Google on par with Yahoo! And MSN (Hotmail) in the vital path of creating a communications layer that allows users to store, subscribe to and share content.
2. Given AOL.com’s path toward becoming the leading video portal, Google will accelerate its play in the business of extending its ad platform to deliver ads to video clips and Podcasts. This would challenge such players sas Lightningcast and Eyeblaster in this space. Also, it puts pressure on Yahoo! to move quickly to extend its ad platform.
3. This puts AOL’s dial-up business into the spotlight. With this move further down the .com path, what is the company to do with its approximately 19 million dial-up customers? A likely scenario is for AOL to offer its dial-up customers on a discounted basis to Verizon, SBC, etc.. and allow the telcos to offer former dial-up users their “768” DSL service that sells for $14.95 a month. There are some issues here given some of the existing relationships between Yahoo! & MSN with the telcos.
Yahoo! is not likely to respond with anything major. For MSN, in the midst of another reorg which again puts its Portal strategy in play, we’re likely to see an acceleration in its Windows Live efforts to keep pace with its competitors.
Interesting. This sets the stage for the AOL-Microsoft relationship in which AOL uses “Fremont” as its classified platform or a hook-up with Google in which they use Google Base. Stay tuned!
AOL will no longer support personal classified listings, but will instead become an aggregator. The company issued a statement in response to an article in AuctionBytes Newsflash on Wednesday that referenced an email from a partner that AOL was closing its classifieds site altogether (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m12/i14/s00).
AOL spokesperson Cindy Harvey sent a statement regarding the AOL Classifieds Marketplace: "Due to a strategic shift in direction pertaining to our Search & Directional Media plans, the AOL Classifieds Marketplace will no longer support personal classifieds listings and as of December 31st will transition into an aggregator of listings from leading industry partners."
AOL's current classifieds section, accessible at http://classifieds.aol.com, consists of a combination of personal listings from AOL members and aggregators that provide listings to AOL. Now, AOL will become a sole aggregator of listings from leading industry partners. Harvey declined to be more specific
After seeing the top searches from Yahoo! for 2005, I think it’s time for me to go on vacation and get-reoriented to the real world. There are no top searches from the world of politics, critical world affairs or even such events as Hurricane Katrina. It makes you wonder if anyone over the age of 15 searches the Web.
When my 72-mile commute from MarinCounty to San Jose came to an end, my car-radio relationship with Howard Stern came to an end. Love him or hate him, he got me from my home to work in the wee hours and distracted me from the horror of my ride.
Today marks the last time I’ll be listening to Stern, live on K-ROCK, from my hotel in NY. That has also been a bit of traditional for me as a way of kicking off my travel work day off with a laugh. Howard is done (for now) on over the air radio in two days. In fact, Yahoo! will have a special online event to mark the day.
I toyed with the idea of buying a Sirrus radio, but decided against it. I just cannot imagine listening to Howard in my home in the morning. I have no commute, so his time on air does not coincide with any time I am in my car. So, like many others, today I’ll be saying goodbye to Howard Stern.
The number of sites that allow you to upload and share videos is exploding. In addition to Grouper, check out Boltfolio. Wonder why Google and Yahoo! are dragging their heels on this?
Am I in the minority of those people who will not watch TV (of any form) on my mobile phone? That means I have to pay for the phone, the service and the content. With the video iPod, I buy the device and then pay for the content I want and view it on a decent-sized miniscreen and then can play it through my TV when desired. I am missing something here.
CBS has announced that several of its top shows, including CSI and Survivor, will begin producing video clips for the Verizon VCast mobile video package. Besides its top prime time hits, CBS is releasing video snippets from The Late Show with David Letterman, Entertainment Tonight, CBS Evening News, and several other shows to the burgeoning mobile video on demand service starting this month.
This is the first CBS content to appear on VCast, which launched early last year with clips from CNN and ESPN, along with specially produced "mobisodes" of the hit series 24. Like the majority of VCast content, CBS' content will be edited into short form clips, which are generally considered as most appropriate for the mobile environment.
Cool move by CBS to put March Madness on the Web. Advertisers will be lining up.
It's the fourth year that CBS Sports will offer the mostly regional games--ones that wouldn't appear across the whole network. Beginning with the first games March 16, there will be up to 56 NCAA men's tournament games available on the Web through the regional semi-finals. For the first three years, including last year, it was a premium service through the college sports site CSTV.com.
This year, CBS has shifted NCAA March Madness on Demand to an ad-supported service in an effort to gain more viewers. The move is in line with CBS' online strategy in news and elsewhere.
"We felt it was time to continue the evolution to an ad-supported free model that will be the biggest growth down the road," said Michael Aresco, senior vice president of programming at CBS Sports.
In addition to the games, there will be streaming video available of news conferences before and after the games, as well as interviews with players and coaches. Games in the Web viewer's local markets will be blacked out, much as the NCAA tournament coverage on a DirecTV subscription package.
Episodes of Monk on the video iPod? Are you kidding me? I think I could fly from here to Timbuktu watching Monk on the video iPod. A great show that is even better on second viewing (and third, fourth...) Now about that battery life….
Who didn't see this coming? I want a daily feed of "Pardon the Interruption" for my video iPod. Also "Baseball Tonight."
Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN cable sports network is mulling a deal to distribute some television programs on Apple's iTunes music and video service, possibly joining its corporate cousin in a landmark deal, ESPN and ABC Sports president George Bodenheimer said on Monday.
Although ESPN has not held talks with Apple Computer Inc. yet, the top rated cable sports network plans to offer its diet of original shows and game clips to "any pipe, any device," Bodenheimer said at the UBS global media conference.
"We're not just in the TV business anymore ... We're going to the table as a sports media company," Bodenheimer said.
Being an early adopter sort, I felt compelled to try CNN Pipeline this morning. CNN Pipeline is CNN’s new pay news service delivered via the Web. Being a thrifty sort, I am on the 99 cent “for the day” trial.
Some early thoughts:
If you want the desktop player, it’s a funky download requiring some sort of Microsoft runtime to be installed. I am not a big fan of such things, but I figured the collateral damage would be slight.
The picture is the size of an index card which is pretty decent. I don’t see a full screen mode anywhere.
There are many viewing options including a mini mode that is relatively unobtrusive. I cannot figure how to get the player to persistently stay on the screen no matter what else I am doing (checking email, using Word,, etc..)
There is a cool feedback feature that populates an email to allow you to share your thoughts. Gotta figure there will be an AIM client soon (AOL and CNN are both in the TWX family)
There are four pipes (channels) running at the same time on varying themes. Right now, there is an international story, something on the White House, weather forecasts and a general news feed. The anchor appears to be dedicated to the Pipeline as opposed to a rebroadcast of an existing feed.
There are no commercials
There are lots of on-demand feeds and segments on such topics as sports, entertainment, business, etc..
On a 0-10, it gets a solid 7.5 so far. There’s nothing better than watching a live feed of heavy snow falling in Virginia when it’s sunny and 65 at your home.
As Mike and I mentioned on our most recent MADCast, we are crazy about Yahoo!’s new RSS feed reader which is baked into the Beta client of the new Yahoo! Mail (hopefully coming soon to a PC near you).
Today, if you go to Inform, you can create your own customized RSS feeds (and, of course loading them into your Yahoo! mail client). You need to do a search at which point you can follow a few steps and generate an RSS feed. You cut and paste the feed script into your reader of choice, and away you go. It’s especially useful for topics that don’t have a natural RSS feed. Worth a try.
Free Wi Fi with some level of sponsorship is the future. I think I’ve mentioned it on this blog many times. Newspapers MUST get into this act. Imagine a free Wi Fi service on a commuter train with an ad strip (as mentioned for the Sunnyvale deal) or even a branded strip (ala Film Loop) that runs across the bottom of the screen that has the latest news headlines from the "paper." Information providers better move fast because there is going to be only so much real estate available on the screen of free Wi Fi users.
Maybe I am prejudiced as a former newspaper reporter, columnist and digital media exec, but I say you can never count the print guys out. Yeah, yeah.. I know I am cheerleading, but take a look at the new TV-video effort from The Virginian-Pilot (a Landmark Communications company). It’s cool and light years ahead of others in their sector. Keep in mind, though, Landmark was way ahead of the pack back in the early ‘90s in the world of newspaper voice and then Internet services. From an innovation standpoint, this effort then is no big surprise.
