Googling Google

Christopher Dawson, Sam Diaz and Matt Weinberger
Home / News & Blogs / Googling Google

Can an Android App make AOL relevant again?

By | July 23, 2010, 12:13am PDT

AOL made a minor splash in the news Thursday with its new Android App and HTML 5 site update. The HTML 5 site, mobile.aol.com, is optimized for the latest generation of smartphones featuring Android and iOS operating systems, both of which support HTML 5 for rich content and location-based services. Yeah, but does anyone use AOL anymore?

As it turns out, they do. AOL actually gets 28 million visits a day and their AIM software remains, if not ubiquitous, nearly an IM standard. As eWeek puts it,

The company, which is working hard to transform into an Internet content company, is making a big bet on mobile to compete for eyeballs with Google, Facebook and Twitter.

AOL, however, is not Google, MSN, or Yahoo. Yahoo, for example, despite a loss of market share to Google remains a popular portal at 400 million visitors a day, dwarfing AOL’s traffic. Can an App or a mobile-friendly website change that?

I don’t particularly like the idea of monopolies or oligopolies, but it’s going to take something pretty compelling to get me to download the AOL Apps and begin making use of AOL services. Services optimized for mobile include news, weather, traffic, and movie information, but this is hardly revolutionary. All of the major portals also have mobile-friendly sites and the AOL Android App merely provides access to AOL mail and Mapquest. A second app, AOL Daily Finance, lets users get financial news and receive stock quotes, but again, this has been done elsewhere.

If I’m going to download an App, I want it to be really useful for me. This App is only useful for people who are already invested in AOL Mail and related properties. It certainly won’t bring new users into the fold.

Should AOL throw in the towel? No, of course not. Competition is good. But come one, folks - give me something that plenty of other providers don’t do well already. Do something interesting with IM, video or audio chat, or leverage the “You’ve got mail” brand that still resonates with 30- and 40-somethings. The few people left at AOL are pretty bright. I bet they could come up with something better than another email app for webmail that not many people use. You want eyes on your site and the ads you serve? I’m afraid this isn’t going to do it.

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “Googling Google”

Topics

America Online Inc., Christopher Dawson

Chris Dawson is a freelance writer and consultant with years of experience in educational technology and web-based systems. In 2011, he became the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network SaaS provider.

Disclosure

Christopher Dawson

Christopher Dawson is the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., by day and a freelance writer and educational technology consultant by night. Well, most of his colleagues at WizIQ are based in India, so really he's working with them whenever he can stay awake. He has worked for his local school district as a teacher and technology director, for the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and for Biogen, Inc. (now Biogen-IDEC, Inc.). He has also consulted with STATNet and Cytyc Corporation and retains close ties with X2 Development Corporation (now owned by Follett Software, the supplier of the student information system he administered for several years). Follett is paying him a monthly honorarium to act as a presenter for their "SIS Voices for Student Achievement" community (he produces occasional blog posts and hosts a monthly webinar on the use of student information systems to inform data-driven instruction and school-wide change. He regularly purchases and/or recommends Dell hardware. This is because Dell makes good hardware and has truly committed itself to education in innovative ways, particularly with their "Connected Classroom" initiative. It isn't because he has dealings with the company through his role at WizIQ (which he does) or because they have provided him with long-term loans of a variety of equipment for in-depth testing (which they have). Intel (reference designer for the Classmate PCs he has implemented in his local schools) has provided him with long-term loans of Classmate PCs for testing, as have Dell and Lenovo with their educational offerings. He may report on any of these companies as his experiences with them have direct bearing on educational technology; positive reports are not necessarily an endorsement and he receives no direct financial compensation from these companies or any others. Intel paid all expenses for his attendance at the 2009 Intel Classmate PC Ecosystem Summit which he attended as the sole representative of the technology press. He was invited to attend in 2010 but his wife would have killed him if he spent 3 days in Vegas geeking out and left her home alone with a new baby. Acer provided him with a 50% discount on an Aspire One netbook in early 2009 after he tested it for 30 days through their educational seed program. He liked the netbook at the time but it has since broken and sits unused in his office. Canonical sent him Ubuntu lanyards, t-shirts, and mousepads for his kids. He stole one of the lanyards and proudly hangs his keys from it and occasionally features his 8-year old wearing an oversized Ubuntu t-shirt on his Facebook profile. Gunnar Optiks sent him a pair of computer glasses to evaluate for a holiday gift guide. He is wearing them now as he types this because they never asked for them back and they rock out loud. Seriously - they work brilliantly and make it much easier to spend 20 hours a day staring at an LCD. If they ever asked for them back, he would fork over the $99 and buy a pair. Microsoft gave him 2 free copies of Office 2010 professional, a desktop clock, and a useless book on Office 2010 when he attended the launch of Office/Sharepoint 2010. He occasionally uses the SharePoint lanyard they gave him instead of the Ubuntu lanyard for his keys, but feels dirty afterwards. Adobe provided him with a pre-release version of the CS5 Master Collection for evaluation and ultimately provided a full, licensed copy for ongoing testing of educational applications of this admittedly expensive software. Like the Gunnars, if the license expires or they come out with CS6, he'd actually go out and buy it himself. Which is saying something, because he's actually pretty cheap. Any other companies wishing to send him cool things to evaluate, wear, or otherwise adorn his kids are more than welcome to; he promises to disclose it here if he keeps any of the stuff. Finally, because WizIQ is a virtual classroom and learning network provider, Chris, as VP of Marketing, frequently interacts with, seeks out deals with, and directly or indirectly competes with a whole lot of LMS, SIS, and other Education 2.0 companies. In general, he'll limit his reporting about these companies to news that does not impact his relationship with them or with WizIQ. If he reports on them, it's because what they are doing is newsworthy or worth the attention of his readers and not because he's trying to broker some deal, damage competition, or otherwise advance his position in his day job. LMS and SIS companies, along with other online learning communities, are a pretty important part of Ed Tech. If he stops reporting on them completely, there won't be a whole lot left. He'll be sure to call out any overt conflicts of interest if they are unavoidable. Finally, Follett Software Company pays him a little tiny honorarium every month to present on their SIS Voices webinars and to write the occasional blog or discussion thread for them. Since Follett recently bought X2 (maker of an awesome web-based SIS that Chris just happened to have used, served in advisory groups for, and frequently reported on), this is probably also worth disclosing.

Biography

Christopher Dawson

Christopher Dawson grew up in Seattle, back in the days of pre-antitrust Microsoft, coffeeshops owned by something other than Starbucks, and really loud, inarticulate music. He escaped to the right coast in the early 90's and received a degree in Information Systems from Johns Hopkins University. While there, he began a career in health and educational information systems, with a focus on clinical trials and related statistical programming and database modeling. This focus led him to several positions at Johns Hopkins, a couple-year stint in private industry, teaching high school math and technology, and 2 years as the technology director for his local school district. Most recently, he started his own consulting business and is now the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network provider. He lives with his wife, five kids (yes, 5), 2 dogs, and a hateful cat in a small town in north-central Massachusetts. Although he is no longer teaching, his roles with WizIQ and ZDNet allow him to continue helping students and teachers add value to education with technology rather than merely adding to the bottom line.

Talkback Most Recent of 8 Talkback(s)

  • RE: Can an Android App make AOL relevant again?
    They need to do something interesting if they want people to use their service again
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Jimster480
    23rd Jul 2010
  • AO ... who?
    AOL? I think I have heard of them. Yeah, my dad shingled his roof with the 3.5'' diskettes they kept sending him back when I was a kid.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    JonathonDoe
    23rd Jul 2010
  • Can't be HTML 5
    Non"Zealot" has informed us this doesn't exist;-)
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Richard Flude
    23rd Jul 2010
  • I know I posted here...
    @Richard Flude

    Did somebody hate the truth and mark it as spam? I guess I'll say it again: He's always said it isn't a standard. It isn't a standard. It won't be a standard for quite a few years.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Michael Alan Goff
    25th Jul 2010
  • Is it the AOL weekly coaster app??
    Is the new app going to send me a brand new coaster (CD) every week like it use to do in the past??

    I need new coasters to protect my furniture from rude/inconsiderate guest.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    wackoae
    23rd Jul 2010
  • RE: Can an Android App make AOL relevant again?
    Ah, AOL, such memories, some fond, some not! Fond memory: my year as an official AOL volunteer chat host. Yep, fun times slapping down the jail bait kiddies who wanted to talk dirty during the weekly Horticulture Chat or whatever.

    Fun: Learning how to make my first website via AOL.

    Fun: AOL had an awesome, free WYSIWYG webpage editor, AOLpress. Nowadays it is nowhere to be found, and that is a shame.

    Not so fun: trying to get my account canceled while being made to wait for hours on the phone and having my call passed from one operator to another in India who each tried to sell me on staying.

    When AOL fell from grace, I was so glad I had never purchased its stock. It is a good example of how a company was at the top of its game and then squandered away the opportunities that offered because of its focus on the acquisition of money rather than serving its users.

    I wouldn't touch an AOL app with a ten foot pole, just out of principle.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Improper Username
    23rd Jul 2010
  • AOL is AWOL
    I think AOL should be spelled AWOL.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Minervo
    26th Jul 2010
  • health and fitness
    It?s excellent to see sites with google and thanks for the share that you have given. Commonly, I?m really amazed.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Fat loss Nutrition and Fitness
    31st Jul

Talkback - Tell Us What You Think

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources