AOL : No Longer A Dead Man Walking

It’s time to stop the “shoulda,coulda, wouldas” with AOL and focus on the Time Warner unit’s present and future. AOL.com can’t measure itself against the past when it created a universe that all of its subscribers were expected to inhabit. Instead, the new ad-supported portal is fighting for attention — competing against other portals and an increasing amount of media and entertainment options online. But Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li tells the NYT, one thing the company won’t be doing is competing for the hard-core Google user: “They’re not going to get the hard-core Google users, and they know that.” Instead, AOL.com will try to lure former subs to take a second look.
Jupiter Research analyst David Card suggests AOL actually comes out ahead with its late portal entry, because the fresh start allows an all-broadband approach.

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