Google still powering AOL?

[jaffstar]

I read that AOL dropped Google, but they still seem to be powering their searches. Any one know anything about this?

[jonrichd]

While there was a bidding war on for AOL last fall, Google finally struck a deal with AOL to keep their partnership going, reportedly paying some cash, and promising some ways to feature AOL content on Google properties.

If you search for [google aol] you can read all about it.

[bobothecat]

Here's a good read:

[news.com.com...]

[julinho]

I read that AOL dropped Google, but they still seem to be powering their searches. Any one know anything about this?

Aren't you confusing AOL with Amazon? Amazon dropped Google a few days ago, and is now using msn.

[jaffstar]

AOL Drops Google For Microsoft — But Worse Was Priced-In (GOOG, MSFT, TWX)
Related Stocks: GOOG, MSFT, TWX

An article (paid sub req’d) in this morning’s Wall Street Journal confirms that Time Warner has decided to partner with Microsoft in online advertising. Key points:

AOL will drop Google as its primary provider for search and use MSN instead.
AOL and MSN advertising-related assets will be combined in a JV with little or no money changing hands.
A joint ad sales force will be created to sell ads on MSN and AOL.
An automated platform will be created to serve ads to both sites (presumably for search, as AOL acquired Advertising.com to handle non-search-related ads).
Microsoft will not acquire an equity stake in AOL.
Deal to be announced in the third week of December.

This was posted Dec 06.

I noticed that my traffic from AOL came down from 7% to 0.7%, however traffic was stable from Google, which made me think they dropped Google. Have no idea why traffic dropped.

[tigger]

I'm seeing some very odd filters being applied to the AOL serps it almost looks like they are using old pre BD data

[jaffstar]

seeing some very odd filters being applied to the AOL serps

That explains it! It’s been happening over 3 months now, progressively getting worse.

[tedster]

I tracked down that article that jaffstar quoted above -- and it is on a blog that has seriously misquoted and distorted the original WSJ article.

The WSJ was about then ongoing negotiations between MS and AOL -- it was full of "could" and "would" language and was in no way a confirmation. And in fact, MSN did not prevail in those negotiations. Google won the alliance with AOL, as noted above.

This is, in my mind, a classic reason not to take a lot of blog information at face value. Here' the WSJ Article [online.wsj.com] (no longer paid sub req'd) -- make up your own mind.

A small sample

Microsoft Pushes to Seal
AOL Advertising Linkup

People familiar with the matter said that under the proposal being discussed, AOL, whose current ad partner is Google, would switch to using Microsoft's search engine, and the two companies would set up a joint venture to sell online advertising across both AOL and Microsoft's MSN portal. The services would remain under control of their respective owners, but their ads would reach many more online customers than they do now, these people said.

But Google remained in its own partnership talks with Time Warner late yesterday and still could emerge on top, these people cautioned.