Google and AOL - Where Is Google Going? Pt 2

Ok. Since my last article on Monday December 19th, Google and AOL have officially announced their partnership. True to the rumours, Google is buying into AOL a 5% stake for US$1billion plus providing a "credit" for US$300million so AOL can buy advertising.

What is interesting is some of the things I hinted at in my previous article. Whereas most were looking at the advertising side, I was looking at the added benefits that Google would obtain from a Google-AOL partnership.

Under the Google-AOL partnership just announced, Google Talk will obtain interporality with AOL's IM thus allowing users from the two services to communicate with each other. Plus, the two companies will collaborate on video search "which will help increase consumer awareness of Time-Warner AOL video content on the web". [click here and here for news reports on the deal]

As predicted, the reason Google pursued the AOL partnership is and was for more than the advertising side. As more and more details are released in the near future, Google's vision of its future will become even more evident.

On a side issue, it is interesting to also note that Google has also made available to the public the ability to obtain a Gmail account by subscribing to the service with a mobile [similar to what was been offered in the USA]. I haven't checked to see how many countries this new rollout has occured for, but is available for the first time to Australians [here].

With their other "soft" launches like music search and gmail for mobiles, expect to see a new Google portal being launched within the next 6 months or so, similar to Yahoo, AOL and the rest. A portal that will not replace the current www.google.com homepage, but compliment it, providing news, weather, video clips etc. Just like the personal homepage Google currently offers, but expanded and updated. I would not be surprised to find that Google announces the launch of an online Office service [via their partnership with Sun and the Open Office Organisation] in the near future.

And the purpose for all this?

As stated in previous postings on Google, their aim in the long term is to establish a customer base through their portals and alliances to begin bringing together their various offerings and thus generate income from outside their normal advertising streams. In addition to all this, provide an alternative to their main "enemy" - Microsoft. Whether we like it or not, Google will over the next 12 months become an even bigger integral part of the Internet community.

Whether the "do no evil" philosophy is still valid, is another issue. But we are in for interesting times ahead.

Yes, it is sheer speculation on my part, but hey, what would I know? I could be totally wrong. Time will tell.