Forum Moderators: mack
also reuters is repeating [today.reuters.com] the story:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc is closing in on a deal with Microsoft Corp. to team up on an online advertising service to compete with Google Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the talks. The paper said the two companies were now focusing on a deal that would combine their advertising-related assets, with little or no money changing hands. It said they expected to reach an agreement before the end of the year, but that it was still possible that Time Warner's America Online unit could strike a deal with competitor Google instead. Time Warner has been holding talks with both Microsoft and Google over AOL, sources familiar with the situation have told Reuters and other media.
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Gates has wisely decided to do what he does best. For the first time I see the possiblilty of MS winning this fight.
It said they expected to reach an agreement before the end of the year, but that it was still possible that Time Warner's America Online unit could strike a deal with competitor Google instead.
Looks Like things will really heat up!
Google is still very much in the running, the sources said, contradicting Tuesday's Wall Street Journal report that said signs pointed to a deal with Microsoft.At least one more round of discussions is planned with each of the two parties, one source familiar with the plans said.
[news.yahoo.com...]
Google probably already knows this, but it will become even more clear how different organic results impact the paid listing click through rates.
Google and AOL will also become aware of whether MSN's organic results steer people towards the paid links or away from them. Interesting either way, not that any of us will ever see the data.
At this point in time, my sites are doing much better on MSN, but I think the two will continue to have pretty significant algo changes over the next few years. Spam in the search engines is a huge problem and it'll take drastic measures to deal with it.
Google is over rated anyhow.
errr...no offense intended but aol users are not known for their Internet savvy...(they are however known for their unbelievable spending habits) :) Seriously, there are a lot of aol users that have kept using many of their products although clearly inferior to free alternatives.
Very good news, at least the market domination is broken up a wee bit more....jeesh, one would think some of you want the old days of yahoo, aol and google all being one in the same and controlling almost all web search traffic...
Time Warner has been holding talks with both Microsoft and Google over AOL, sources familiar with the situation have told Reuters and other media.
This is a standard negotiating practice in Hollywood, where at least part of Time Warner has its roots. A project is never shopped to just one studio. It is always shopped to at least two, with the intention of creating a bidding war.
Looks like Time Warner is playing this one beautifully.
If you think Google is big, Microsoft is bigger and they are a lot more diversified. Google ultimately has one product - search. And from where I sit, they're not doing to well at it right now.
jump over to google.com and avoid aol search.
LOL... do me a favour.
Why do you think AOL exists. Some people simply want to turn on their computer, search and find... they will not bother about moving away as they will on the whole probably not notice the slight (yes slight) decrease in quality of the results they see.
IMHO this can only be good for the whole search market.
aol users ... are however known for their unbelievable spending habits
Thank you. I have measured this on several websites, and AOL users are the BEST traffic there is. As far as PPC, I am willing to pay 2.5 to 3 times as much for AOL clicks as I pay for google.com clicks. I mentioned this on the AdWords forum, but people seemed to think that the quality of AOL traffic was a myth.
In general, those users are more mature, and more ready to buy when they are searching.
IMHO, yahoo has a younger audience of not-so-serious, casual surfers.
G's demographics are more varied, so the traffic from G has both of the above.
Other niches than mine may have better results from Y, but I want the AOL and MSN users. :-)
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Seriously, there are a lot of aol users that have kept using many of their products although clearly inferior to free alternatives.
Sounds like the same customer profile as that of a certain software monopoly. AOL/MSN could be a marriage made in heaven...
I also notice MSN Search over the past 6 months has dramatically improved.
Cha - Ching
but then, what percentage of aol users do you think even know how to navigate to google to do their own search there?
1) G has been favoring top corporate sponsors for a long time now. All the results in G are from huge corporate sites: i.e. amazon, ebay etc...
2) MSN results are more relevant
3) It's about time G is put in their place
