Forum Moderators: open
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30493-2002Nov8.html [washingtonpost.com]
This could really turn a few AOL/MSN users Yahoo's way. (or back to them) Lets just hope it turns into more referrals from search. It should for advertisers at least. The initial price may be a bit high ($9.95/mo.), but well see how they adjust it down the line.
I always wondered why AOL wouldn't allow you access to their services unless they were your isp. AOL did not become such a large company just from subscriber fees paid by the public, they made it from their marketing data which turned into ad sales, etc. More users means higher prices for ads, more ad impressions, etc. I think Yahoo knows they have a great isp service and don't feel the need to force the public to use it just to get to their services. Smart move in my opinion.
[added]
more here [help.yahoo.com]
>login sends you to my.yahoo right now
>after reading details on core services and options, the package seems a little weak.
Yahoo seems to be really focusing on offering all kinds of paid services.
I recently signed up for DSL with them and they offered 3 different kinds of packages where you could pay an additional amount of money and have access to their games, bill pay, email, image storage, etc.
It seems like they're focusing on getting other forms of revenue apart from ads. Every month they seem to roll out a service related to this.
Also, I think they're going to become a marketing powerhouse. With the information they collect from their portal users, as well as that collected from their DSL users, they could position themselves in an important spot in the market - not just as a portal.
