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| Thread ID: 71183 | 2006-07-28 18:26:00 | AOL a'Go-Go | SurferJoe46 (51) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 474437 | 2006-07-28 18:26:00 | AOL's parent company, Time Warner, won't announce its second-quarter earnings until next week . But the first quarter was pretty lame . Unlike its fellow horsemen (E-Bay, Yahoo, Amazon *footnote), AOL saw revenues fall by about 7 percent, as 3 . 1 million Americans stopped subscribing . I know I did . . . last year because of the English-as-a-third-language techs and helpline assistants . Like its fellow horsemen, AOL saw operating income fall—by about 14 percent, from $314 million to $269 million . On July 11, the Wall Street Journal reported that AOL might soon adopt a new business strategy: It will morph from a subscription-powered Internet-access provider to an advertising-supported portal . The subscription business is declining anyway . Make that: "dead on arrival" . So, (as the prospective plan goes), AOL should stop charging subscription fees to AOL users who have high-speed Internet access from cable or telephone companies . . . . . . thus forgoing up to $1 billion in operating profit through 2009 . If it can keep people using AOL for e-mail (and hence as a launching pad for the Internet), it might be able to capture more of the Internet-ad-sales market, which is growing at a rate of 25 percent a year . Is this an AOL 1990s flashback? . . . . . . . . It's plan rests on the assumption that recent trends in ad-spending growth will continue unabated for several years into the future! Yeah . . . . . . . sure! Crystal ball gazing has NOT been a strong point in AOL/Time Warner's optical capacities in the past . . . what makes them think they'll get it right this time? With their shift to off-shore tech and that 2-second delay on a toll-free line, they tried . . . oh! they were very trying! Footnote: From the ashes of the 2001-2002 crash there emerged four horsemen of the dot-com apocalypse: Amazon . com, Yahoo!, eBay, and AOL . This quartet of iconic companies, wounded but not destroyed in the crash, survived the plague years and flourished when the market recovered . But in recent weeks, at a time when online advertising and e-commerce are enjoying strong growth, all four have pulled up lame . The group that once led the Nasdaq's resurgence has generally lagged the tech-heavy index over the past year . You can't blame it all on Google . Each of the horsemen is still a leader in its core business, Google or no Google . But each derives the lion's share of its revenues from a maturing U . S . market, each is finding profit margins slipping as it tries to diversify, and each has foolishly reached back to tried-and-failed ideas of the dot-com era for salvation . |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
| 474438 | 2006-07-30 12:12:00 | cyber.geti.or.kr | Rob99 (151) | ||
| 474439 | 2006-07-30 12:26:00 | Too subtle for me, Rob. What was I supposed to get from that link? |
Laura (43) | ||
| 474440 | 2006-07-30 12:43:00 | I couldnt find any tumbleweed sounds. I think it would be cool if we could have sounds when you click into a thread, this one is very quiet. For monday laughs web.ukonline.co.uk |
Rob99 (151) | ||
| 474441 | 2006-07-30 12:52:00 | Ah well, the sound of a tumbleweed isn't exactly what I thought of (but we won't go there...) not being all that common around these parts. I guess it might mean something to SurferJoe? I'll leave you to your play... |
Laura (43) | ||
| 474442 | 2006-07-30 16:24:00 | I could take it one of several ways: 1) a very dry post, no machine guns, screeching tires or screams by victims 2) that I should dry up and blow away 3) that whatever humor in the article left the reader dry of emotion 4) that the www is a desert and a dead man's zone . 5) that my well of quick-witted and barbed humor has dried up . 6) that all (AOL, E-Bay, Yahoo, Amazon) should dry up and blow away 7) a complaint that there was no gratuitus nudity in the post The post was meant to be mulled over, like fine wine and dark bread; not chewed and swallowed, losing the subtle nuances(*) of prose-worthy juxtapositioning(#) and esotericism(%); as opposed to exoteric(+) . * A subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude; "without understanding the finer nuances you can't enjoy the humor"; "don't argue about shades of meaning" # The arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar narrative moments for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense, or character development . See also antithesis, bathos, foil, mirror passage, and mirror scene . % Hidden or deeper knowledge or teachings that are possessed or understood only by a few . + Knowledge that is publicly available, in contrast with esoteric knowledge, which is kept from everyone except the initiated . |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
| 474443 | 2006-07-30 16:55:00 | Well I mulled over it like fine wine, Joe - if it makes you feel any better? |
Laura (43) | ||
| 474444 | 2006-07-30 17:18:00 | Yeah.....I'm good now. | SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
| 474445 | 2006-07-30 23:18:00 | 7 :lol: | Rob99 (151) | ||
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