AOL Developments And A New Microsoft Search Engine: What Year Is This?
Two names are dominating tech news today: AOL and Microsoft. But if it’s 1999, why is there a hybrid car in my driveway and a flat-panel TV inside my house? AOL has returned to the headlines because its owner, Time Warner, has now publicly acknowledged the inevitable by announcing that it will spin off the company. That will officially end what a lot of people in the tech business would consider the Worst. Merger. Ever. But for AOL’s users, the story isn’t over yet. A newly-independent AOL might decide to sell off its dial-up business to a third party (and probably should while there’s still some value left in it). Its portfolio of Web services (the real future of the company) is probably in store for some sort of post-spinoff reshuffling once management doesn’t have to worry about what TW HQ might want. If you’re an AOL customer, I’d like to hear your take on the news — let me know what you think in the comments. Microsoft, meanwhile, has done a late-’90s thing of its own: It’s launc
