Google is growing, AOL not so much. Perhaps these articles give a clue why that’s so.
Free Content Online? Publishers Are Divided
AOL, [AOL’s Jonathan Miller] argued, had a great opportunity to act as a “toll booth,” gathering these services and selling them to members, adding the cost to their monthly AOL bills, and collecting a percentage.
Sites Become Dependent on Google
Think of it as the Google economy. Much as eBay spawned an army of entrepreneurial auctioneers, Google has become enough of a Web gatekeeper that its leads now prop up plenty of commercial sites.