Although AOL itself has so far refused to comment, media reports have the company getting ready to retire some of its online service offerings—and more-heavily promote others—in an effort to brighten up its bottom line. The moves come as corporate parent Time Warner is shopping around for another company to take over AOL, or at least partner with it and share costs.
According to a July 14 memo from AOL executive VP Kevin Conroy (no, not that Kevin Conroy) published by TechCrunch, services on the chopping block incldue media sharing site Bluestring, onlien storage service Xdrive, photo-sharing site AOL Pictures, and AOL’s mobile service offering MyMobile.
Another memo published by PaidContent.org also has the company rolling back or shuttering some of its “pro” blog offerings, including DIYLife, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, and DownloadSquad.
At the same time, AOL apparently plans to shift emphasis towards some of its better-performing properties, including its browser toolbar, email service, Truveo video search service, and various desktop software applications like AIM.
The moves mark the latest chapters in the descent of the once-mighty AOL: a decade ago, “America Online” was practically synonymous with “Internet” for millions of Americans, lured into its walled-garden set of services and content offerings by easy-to-use desktop software which was available seemingly everywhere on floppy disk and (later) CD-ROM. However, following the acquisition of Netscape and a mammoth merger with media giant Time Warner, AOL’s struggled to adapt its business model to cope with the broader Internet, and a long series of acquisitions never seemed to light a fire under the company. In the last year AOL has worked hard to transform itself into an online advertising powerhouse fueled by user eyeballs attracted to its free online services (like search, email, photo sharing, video, and more), but with the exception of AIM, none of those services have achieves a top-tier status in their category like Flickr or YouTube. Now, Time Warner is increasingly anxious to unload what remains of AOL, or at least find a strategic partner to shoulder some of AOL’s costs and risks.
