AOL released its second quarter earnings this morning. Many financial analysts had a modestly positive reaction to AOL's display ad growth, though overall revenues were were off 8 percent: $542.2 million (vs. $592.2 million a year ago). Display revenues were up 14 percent overall, 16 percent in the US. However search and contextual ad revenues were down 21 percent. No one is very upset about the decline in search revenues given that analysts don't expect much from AOL in this category anymore. AOL's search market share has been declining over time and so it comes as little surprise [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | AOL: Search Marketplace

AOL announced they have extended their search deal with Google for an additional five-years. This includes Google powering AOL's organic and paid search results. The deal also added in that Google will power search on mobile search, in mobile apps and content. Also, all of AOL's video content will also be on YouTube as part of this new extended deal. In summary, the new five year deal includes: Search Products: Google will provide AOL with additional features and enhancement to its leading Web search products that will improve the consumer search experience across AOL's network of si [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | AOL: Search Marketplace | Google: Business Issues | Google: Partnerships | Top News

The Six Revisions blog complied an excellent list of the classic search engines, some dating back to the 1990s. His list includes screen shots of both the old and current (if available) versions of HotBot, Excite, WebCrawler, Ask Jeeves, Ask.com, Yahoo, Google, Dogpile, AltaVista, Lycos, MSN Search, Bing, AOL Search, Infoseek, Go.com, Netscape, MetaCrawler, and All The Web. Scrolling down the list and looking at some of those old screen shots bring back fun memories. Of course, there are many search engines missing, too many to list there or even here. But looking at the old screen capt [...]

Related Topics: AOL: Search Marketplace | Ask: Web Search | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Live Search | Search Engines: Lycos | Search Engines: Other Search Engines | Yahoo: Search

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 | Google: Partnerships

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 | Features: Analysis | Search Engines: Social Search Engines