AOL announced today that it's hired former Google employee Shashi Seth as its Senior VP of Global Advertising Products. While with Google, Seth was head of monetization for YouTube. Most recently he was the Chief Revenue Officer for Cooliris. AOL's addition of Seth is the latest in a series of hirings from the search industry -- and Google in particular -- going back to March when Tim Armstrong left Google to become AOL's Chairman and CEO. Armstrong was one of Google's longest serving executives, and AOL credited him for helping to "build one of the most successful media teams in the histor [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: Industry | Google: Employees

Brad Garlinghouse, who was previously an SVP at Yahoo, and the author of the now famous "Peanut Butter Manifesto," is joining AOL as president of Internet and Mobile communications. What this means is that he'll be responsibile for email, IM and other communications tools, which implicates a range of properties including Bebo. According to the press release out this morning Garlinghouse will also be "heading up AOL's Silicon Valley operations from its Mountain View campus and serving as the West Coast lead for AOL Ventures, the company`s venture capital arm headed globally by Jon Brod." [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | AOL: MapQuest | Channel: Local

In anticipation of a spin off/IPO for AOL, TimeWarner bought back Google's 5 percent interest in the company for $283 million dollars. Google originally purchased the equity stake in AOL in 2005 to preserve its search relationship with its largest partner and fend of Microsoft, which was seeking a potential deal with or acquisition of AOL. The original Google investment was $1 billion, which valued the TimeWarner AOL unit at $20 billion. The current valuation of AOL, based on the share buy back, would be roughly $5.6 billion. Here's what Google said, before it wrote down most of the va [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues | Google: Legal | Google: Partnerships

It's been roughly 100 days since Tim Armstrong was named CEO of AOL in anticipation of a spin-off/IPO of the company from corporate parent TimeWarner later this year. There are a slew of interviews out this morning in which Armstrong assesses his first 100 days, the state of the business and gives some indications of where AOL is headed. Among the highlights: AOL sees content and its display ad network reach as its primary strengths It will have many brands built on more unified platforms that simplify the back end The new AOL will be divided into the following areas (per AdAge): co [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | AOL: MapQuest | AOL: Search Marketplace | Channel: Local | Google: Partnerships

We wanted to wish all the fathers out there a happy Father's Day from all of us at Search Engine Land. To celebrate, below is a collection of some of the logos from Google and the rest of the industry. Happy Father's Day! Google: Yahoo: AOL: DogPile: Bing: Ask.com: Cre8asite Forums: Search Engine Roundtable: [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Ask: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: Bing | SEM Industry: Community | Yahoo: General

AOL recently soft-launched Love.com, which it advertises as a collection of "topic blogs" that "provide a central view into what the world is loving now." But it's really an SEO play. Give the site any subdomain under the sun, and Love.com will make a new site on-the-fly with content scraped from news sites, blogs, YouTube videos, Twitter messages and more. Like this: Everybody loves cold sores, right? Well, not everybody loves Love.com. Says Dave Naylor: "Approximately 1 bazillion keyword specific subdomains filled with scraped content and ads? Are AOL so desperate that they [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: SEO | SEO: Duplicate Content | SEO: Spamming

Happy Earth Day everyone! Like last year we wanted to post a collection of the logos created by the search engines for today. Here they are: For the animated versions of Yahoo and AOL's logo, see my post at the Search Engine Roundtable and for past years, see 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004. [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Ask: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: General | SEM Industry: General | Yahoo: General

Today in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the first day of Spring. The search engines, excluding Yahoo, have special logos for the day. Let me share them with you. Google's logo was designed by Eric Carle: AOL has a Flash animated logo: [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: Bing | SEM Industry: Community

Today is St. Patrick's Day and the search engines have created special logos and maps for the day. Let's start of with a collage of logos, that I compiled at the Search Engine Roundtable. The Live Search Blog has a blog post that shows how Live Search Maps has several maps that shows few collections of favorite destinations for St Patrick's Day. For example, Boston, New York, Chicago and Seattle are some of the US cities that have parades today. Finally, Andrew Girdwood spotted some risky images on Google for a search on happy st patrick's day. I saw them myself last night, but Go [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Ask: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: Marketing | Top News | Yahoo: General

One of Google's longest serving executives, Tim Armstrong, is departing the company to become AOL's new chairman and CEO, replacing existing chair and CEO Randy Falco. From the AOL release: Tim Armstrong, Google Senior Vice President, has been named Chairman and CEO of AOL, LLC, Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes announced today. Current AOL Chairman and CEO Randy Falco and President and COO Ron Grant plan to leave the company after a transition period. In making the announcement Mr. Bewkes said: "Tim is the right executive to move AOL into the next phase of its evolu [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: Industry | Features: Analysis | Google: Employees | Top News

Valentine’s Day is being celebrated around the world and today, Google had not one, but two different logos, depending on where in the world you accessed Google. Plus, search engines like Yahoo, Live, Ask and others had their special logos. Below is a compilation of logos that I collected throughout the day, the special day. Happy Valentine’s Day to you all! Google's Two Logos: Yahoo: AOL: [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Ask: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: General | SEM Industry: General | Top News | Yahoo: General

Like last year, today, the search engines are commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I attached a collage of logos and themes from the various search engines, including Google, Yahoo, AOL, Live.com, Ask.com and Dogpile. To see them all in greater detail, you can visit their respective home pages today or go to the Search Engine Roundtable, where I posted each logo individually. Like I said in my other post, I suspect these search engines will all have special logos tomorrow, for Inauguration Day, in the US. [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Ask: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: General | SEM Industry: General | Yahoo: General

Happy New Years everyone! Below is a collection of logos for the special day from the search industry, reposted from my other search blog, here for everyone to see. On behalf of the Search Engine Land team, we would like to wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009! Google's Logo: Yahoo's Animated Logo: Seems like Yahoo had a calendar that said December 31, but on New Years itself, they have nothing. Update, they had a logo for a few hours, a reader sent it to me, here it is: Live.com's Theme: AOL's Animated Logo: [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Ask: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: General | Search Engines: Baidu | SEM Industry: General | Top News | Yahoo: General | Yahoo: Marketing

Happy Holidays from Search Engine Land! Below is a listing of special logos from Google and the search industry for the holidays. I also posted this at the Search Engine Roundtable, with links to the past five years of logos from our industry. Everyone, have a happy holidays and thank you all for reading! Google: Yahoo: Live.com: DogPile: Ask.com: AOL.com: Baidu: FriendFeed: Quintura: BruceClay: Hitwise: Marketing Pilgrim: PPC Heros: Cre8asite Forums: Search Engine Ro [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Ask: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: General | Search Engines: Baidu | SEM Industry: General | Top News | Yahoo: General

AOL is repositioning or perhaps enhancing Bebo as a kind of dashboard for the internet using the concept of a "social inbox." The Wall Street Journal has coverage of what's at stake for AOL and the challenges facing social media ad revenues. The social inbox idea is about aggregation of content and services (e.g., email) from a range of third parties and partners in one place. The press release describes the strategy: The new aggregation and update features delivered by Bebo go a long way toward solving the main problem facing consumers online, namely, a cluttered social networking experi [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | AOL: Search Marketplace | Channel: Social | Features: Analysis | Search Engines: Social Search Engines

Happy Thanksgiving Search Engine Land readers! Today, in observance of the holiday, we hope to not write here today. So make sure to tune in tomorrow for today's search news and tomorrows. To give you something fun to look at, I'll post what I did at the Search Engine Roundtable, a collection of special Thanksgiving logos from across the search industry. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Google's Logo: Yahoo's flash logo: [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Ask: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: General | SEM Industry: General | Yahoo: General

Only days after the two companies submitted a modified proposal to try and win the favor of anti-trust regulators, Google has unilaterally decided to discontinue its paid-search agreement with Yahoo, citing "a protracted legal battle but also damage to relationships with valued partners." Yahoo issued a public statement expressing disappointment with Google's decision: Yahoo! continues to believe in the benefits of the agreement and is disappointed that Google has elected to withdraw from the agreement rather than defend it in court. Google notified Yahoo! of its refusal to move forward w [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: Industry | Google & Yahoo Ad Deal | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal | Top News

Silicon Alley Insider was reporting that a Yahoo-AOL deal was imminent. Now the site says that a source within Time Warner contradicted the imminent claim but says the parties are still talking. Meanwhile just a hop, skip and a jump from AOL's Virgina headquarters, Google and Yahoo are seeking to head off a US Justice Department anti-trust action to block the paid search partnership between the two. The Wall Street Journal conveys the impression that anti-trust ligitation is being activity prepared by the government and that it is all but certain unless Google and Yahoo can head it off at t [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: Industry | Legal: General | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal | Yahoo: Business Issues

Mithras Capital, a small Yahoo institutional shareholder, is suggesting that Microsoft take another look at Yahoo and buy the company for $22 per share. That's $9 less than Microsoft's original bid for Yahoo during the takeover saga earlier this year. Yahoo shares are now trading near their 52 week low. As of the stock market's close yesterday Yahoo shares were trading at $12.65. Microsoft's final bid for Yahoo was $33 per share before Redmond formally pulled its offer in May. Yahoo's 52 week high was just over $34 per share. At the time of the original Microsoft offer in February, Yahoo s [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: Industry | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal | Microsoft: Business Issues | Yahoo: Business Issues

Against the backdrop of economic meltdown Yahoo and AOL are reportedly continuing their merger talks in earnest. We wrote about the potential combination several times during the initial wave of MicroHoo negotiations, when Yahoo approached TimeWarner as an alternative to Microsoft, and more recently again. Based on back and forth discussions with both Yahoo and Microsoft over the past several months, it appears that TimeWarner genuinely does want to deal AOL to someone (there are really on a few choices). TechCrunch speculates that the deal on the table contemplates a Yahoo acquisition of [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: Industry | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Partnerships