Digg’s Kevin Rose had this to say in the latest edition of “this WEEK in TECH”:
I’ve heard good things Google Calendar. I have, a buddy of mine that’s played with, er, that has access to it, and its supposed to be really good and be out in the next couple of weeks.
Hat-tip: Kashif
It’s official: Google and AOL are partners. Here’s the historic press release, hot off the wire:
Time Warner’s AOL and Google to Expand Strategic Alliance
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. & NEW YORK & DULLES, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dec. 20, 2005–Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX - News):
- Creating Global Advertising Partnership
- Google to Invest $1 Billion for a 5% Stake in AOL
- Companies to Collaborate on Online Video Offering and Make More AOL Content Available to Google Users
- Google Talk Instant Messaging Software to Communicate with AIM usersGoogle Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG - News) and America Online, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX - News), today announced that they are expanding their current strategic alliance. The agreement creates a global online advertising partnership, makes more of AOL’s industry-leading content available to Google users, and includes a $1 billion investment in AOL by Google. This strategic alliance expands on the original relationship between the two companies launched three years ago.
Time Warner Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dick Parsons said: “We’re very pleased to build significantly on our special relationship with Google in a way that will meaningfully strengthen AOL’s position in the fast-growing online advertising business and help drive more advertisers to its Web properties. This agreement is key to fulfilling our commitment to realize the potential of AOL’s very large online audience. As digital technologies continue to drive industries together, the great value and opportunity inherent in Time Warner’s structure and array of premier businesses becomes increasingly clear. A critical piece of this strategic alliance will be our content, which we will be making more accessible to Google users.”
Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said: “AOL is one of Google’s longest-standing partners, and we are thrilled to strengthen and expand our relationship. Today’s agreement leverages technologies from both companies to connect Google users worldwide to a wealth of new content. We’ve also created a simple way for AOL Marketplace advertisers to buy and place search-related advertising across the AOL network. This partnership is an important next step for our companies.”
Serving Users and Advertisers
Under the strategic alliance, Google and AOL will continue providing search technology to AOL’s network of Internet properties worldwide. The agreement’s broad range of new features for users and advertisers include:
- Creating an AOL Marketplace through white labeling of Google’s advertising technology - enabling AOL to sell search advertising directly to advertisers on AOL-owned properties;
- Expanding display advertising throughout the Google network;
- Making AOL content more accessible to Google Web crawlers;
- Collaborating in video search and showcasing AOL’s premium video service within Google Video;
- Enabling Google Talk and AIM instant messaging users to communicate with each other, provided certain conditions are met; and
- Providing AOL marketing credits for its Internet properties.AOL and Google have also agreed to extend the term of their existing European relationship, and, subject to mutual agreement, they may extend the AOL Marketplace internationally. In addition, Google, AOL and Time Warner may choose to expand the new partnership to Time Warner’s other advertising opportunities.
Google Investment in AOL
Google will invest $1 billion for an effective 5% equity stake in America Online, Inc., allowing the company to participate in AOL’s future success. Google will become the only shareholder in AOL other than Time Warner. Time Warner will retain management control and full strategic flexibility over AOL, while Google will have certain customary minority shareholder rights, including those associated with any future sale or public offering of AOL.
Additional financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Don Logan, Chairman of Time Warner’s Media & Communications Group, said: “We look forward to working with Google to extend our successful paid-search partnership to other forms of advertising. In addition, we’re excited about the potential for driving more traffic to our network of Internet properties. This agreement builds on our 2004 acquisition of Advertising.com and our other efforts to make AOL a more attractive advertising partner. We’re confident that this partnership marks the next big step in making AOL an even more important player in online advertising.”
Mr. Schmidt continued: “Our investment underscores our recognition of AOL as a valuable strategic asset and our desire both to contribute to and participate in its future success. We look forward to working with Dick Parsons and the management teams at Time Warner and AOL to take our already successful AOL relationship to even greater heights.”
Jonathan Miller, AOL’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: “AOL and Google have a very successful history working together, and this is an opportunity to take it to a new level that will benefit both companies and the customers we serve. We are excited about working with Google on the next generation of AOL products, while further expanding our presence on the Web. This is a great moment for AOL.”
About Google Inc.
Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.
About America Online, Inc.
America Online, Inc. and its subsidiaries operate a leading network of Web brands and the largest Internet access subscription service in the United States. Brands include the AOL(R) service, the AOL.com(R) website, and the AIM(R), MapQuest(R), Moviefone(R), Netscape(R), CompuServe(R) and ICQ(R) services. America Online offers a range of digital services including the TotalTalk(R) voice service. The company also has operations in Canada and Europe. America Online, Inc. is based in Dulles, Virginia.
About Time Warner Inc.
Time Warner Inc. is a leading media and entertainment company, whose businesses include interactive services, cable systems, filmed entertainment, television networks and publishing.
Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This document includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on the current expectations or beliefs of management of Google Inc. and Time Warner Inc., and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the statements herein due to changes in economic, business, competitive, technological and/or regulatory factors, and other factors affecting the operation of the respective businesses of Google and Time Warner. More detailed information about these factors may be found in filings by Google or Time Warner, as applicable, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including their respective most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Google and Time Warner are under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any such obligation to, update or alter their respective forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Contact:
Time Warner
Edward Adler, 212-484-6630
Kathy McKiernan, 212-484-8043
OR
AOL
John Buckley, 703-265-3289
Tricia Primrose-Wallace, 703-265-2896
OR
Lynn Fox, 650-253-2642
David Krane, 650-253-4096——————————————————————————–
Source: Time Warner Inc. and Google Inc.
————————————————————————-
If you’re going to vote in only one blog awards this year, make it Randy Charles Morin’s KB Cafe awards. After all, not only is Randy the super secret (even from me) owner of the Blog News Channel, but he listed InsideGoogle as one of his favorite blogs in an interview. I’m currently in second place in the Google category, so vote early and often to win this thing!
I’d recommend voting for all the friends and associates of this here blog, like my InsideMicrosoft (tied for first), BNC blogs Apple Watch (second place) and Hoffman’s Hearsay (tied for first), as well as Coolz0r’s Marketing Thoughts (first place), Gary Price’s ResourceShelf in the Library blog category (second place), the Indie Kids blog in the music blog category (tied for first) and Mets Blog in the baseball blog category (first place).
Since Google didn’t do it, Philipp and Alex Ksikes created Google Modules.com, your one-stop shop for modules for your Google Personalized Homepage. There are a lot more modules out there than you think, and as far as I know this is the only place to find all of them. Naturally, there’s an RSS feed, and you can even leave comment on every module.
Google has done its end of 2005 Zeitgeist, highlighting the most popular searches of the year.
And finally, chew on this:
(via the Google Blog)
Barry’s launched a site that deserves notice.
If you are pissed off about the New York City Transit strike, go there. We should organize and take on the union, or, even better, drive the damn buses ourselves.
According to the New York Times, part of Google’s deal with AOL requires Google to begin displaying image ads on Google.com. The article says Google had already been working on the idea of image ads, but AOL forced the issue.
The executives close to the talks said that at AOL’s request, Google would begin to test various forms of graphical ads, and that it would make the same formats available to other advertisers. Google has started to sell graphical ads for placement on other sites; plans to do so on Google itself were accelerated by the AOL talks, an executive involved in the negotiations said.
Graphical advertisements, like the common rectangular ads known as banners, have been a feature of most commercial Internet sites for a decade. Google made a name for itself, in part, because it went without graphical ads in favor of small text advertisements linked to the topics for which users search. Google’s simple pages, quick to load and easy to read, helped the site build a following, and text advertisements proved valuable to marketers looking for people interested in their products.
I expect nothing less than an uproar from Slashdot and many bloggers. While this may have been inevitable, Google set the standard for search ads, one that all the major players now abide by, and now it gets the chance to set it back.
Google’s biggest challenge will come from loading times. Unless they can come up with an impressive caching/compression scheme, a page with 100-250k of ads just isn’t going to load all that fast. If they’re smart, Google will put a lot of those PhDs to work creating the next great image format.
Did Google give up too much? Will MSN or Yahoo embarress them by sticking with the text ads and faster load times? We’ll see, and I don’t think it’ll be pretty.
The article also reports that AOL will receive $300 million in free advertisements across Google’s properties, designed to drive traffic to AOL’s sites. You may start seeing ads at the bottom of AdWords results with an image, a logo and a search box.
One format being discussed is a box, which may include a photograph and a logo, that would appear on the main search results pages toward the bottom of the advertisements in the right-hand column. Traditional banner ads may appear on Google Image Search and the Froogle shopping site, which already include many photographs, an executive involved said. No advertising is contemplated for the Google home page.
In addition to the $300 million in advertising, Google has agreed to help put content from AOL on other parts of its site as well. Google, for example, will look for content and services from AOL to include in a feature it calls One Box, which puts very specific links and content above regular results for certain search topics, an executive involved in the negotiations said.
Google does not charge sites to be included in its One Box program. Google did not promise any exclusivity to AOL’s content, but it did agree to consider it in any future One Box expansion, the executive said. One likely prospect would be for a new One Box feature on celebrities that Google is developing, the executive said.
(via Battelle)
F-ing MTA.
If you don’t live in New York City, you might want to skip this.
Today, our transit workers decided to strike. This affects millions of commuters, including myself. Its hard to remain objective in a time like this, so I’m not sure I’m even going to try.
The issue, as always, is more money. Every union in this country seems convinced that, once they had gained enough power to avoid the things unions were created for (awful working conditions, slave labor wages), that the new goal of unions was to get the most money possibly, regradless of whether it made any sort of sense.
As a result, this country is filled with greedy unions. While I support the concept of unions and the rights of unions, since we’ve seen how greedy corporations can get in their absense, I do not support the tactics of many unions of squeezing employers for god-awful sums.
New York City Transit hasn’t been doing well for a while, financially. Crappy management structure has guaranteed that they had virtually no shot of emerging financially stable from the last few years. In a time like this, we all have to make sacrifices to keep this all-important system running.
The commuters of New York sacrificed. We now pay a lot more to ride the buses and subways. The transit workers did not sacrifice. In the face of billion dollar deficits, they gave nothing. No pay cuts, no pension deferrments. They wouldn’t dip into their multi-billion dollar union fund to aid the commuters of this city, but they will now gladly do so to pay the fines for a strike that is crippling those very commuters.
I read last week that the average bus driver makes something like $25 an hour, about triple what the average bus rider makes. I’ve got some news: there are a lot of the twenty million commuters who would gladly take your jobs at ten dollars, if only to screw you.
The transit workers don’t deserve their current pay levels, let alone a twenty percent raise. If the MTA gives in and passes the cost onto commuters, maybe we’ll organize this time as well.
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Some links:
Wikipedia is running a live article on the strike.
The MTA has a Strike Contingency Plan web page with little useful information. The one good news: unlimited Metrocards will be extended one day for every strike day.
The city has its own site with information.
The New York Times has a photo slideshow of the 1980 strike. Here’s Mayor Koch on the Brooklyn Bridge:
Koch told commuters to have a martini after work to let congestion ease itself.
Lots of companies, including the New York Times, hoping to cash in on the strike by buying up Google ads on strike-related terms.
I might add, the typical New York blogs: not doing your job!
Miel got to go to a Maxim Belgium anniversary party, and somehow complains that the women weren’t hot enough, and that people assumed his girlfriend was a model and asked her to pose for pictures.
If you can’t tell, I hate him now…
SNL did a hilarious “Digital Short” with Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg doing some hardcore rap about going to see “The Chronic - What? - cles of Narnia”. Google Maps gets a great line in as they argue how to find their way to the theater. After discussing Mapquest and Yahoo Maps:
Google Maps Is The Best –
True Dat –
Double True!
(via Search Engine Lowdown > Findory [which is saving my ass during the Bloglines outage])
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