Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Checkmate - AOL acquires Sphere !

In a move that can only be described as brilliant, Sphere officially announced they have been acquired by AOL.

Why brilliant?

If there's one thing that Google has (in Adsense), it's a presence on tens of thousands of blogs and websites. Sure, it's a refined money-maker for Google but it's also clear visibility and sector dominance.

Sphere related content also appears on thousands of blogs. It's not really a money machine, but it's there. It's a start.

Here's where it gets a little if'y or curious.

The Sphere related content on THIS blog is delivered by FeedBurner (a Google company).

Two ways to look at this. Google gets along pretty well with AOL and has for a long time. Is there a plan?? Could this be part of the counter to Yahoo / Microsoft?

The reverse view. FeedBurner could easily pull the plug on the FeedBurner Sphere feed flare, OR, it could all be coincidental?

Watch for the opinions. No doubt, they'll be coming fast and furious. Try not to listen to too many of them until we really know what's going on :)

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