Did AOL Shoot The Messenger?
from the strategic-mistakes dept
We've argued here before about whether or not AOL's decision not to allow cross communication between IM clients was a mistake. For most of the past two years, people have gone back and forth, but for the most part they felt that AIM was doing okay, and AOL had made the right decision. Now, it's beginning to look like a mistake. Microsoft is definitely gaining on them (a MS sponsored report says they have more users than AIM). Of course, the one thing the article doesn't point out is that if AIM had let MSN Messenger communicate with it from the beginning, the situation might be even worse for AOL right now.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
