In the past, AOL was the only social networking site, charging a monthly access fee for their email, IM, and internet services. Competition was virtually non-existant which made AOL a little too comfortable in the industry. As competition became more threatning, not charging for their email and internet services and computers having internet explorer or safari already installed, AOL could not keep up and had to make their services free.
Google and Yahoo became the leaders in this new era and have been trying to compete with one another for a number of years. The introduction of My Yahoo and iGoogle along with IM features on these sites allows users to maintain social networking without having to go on different pages or sign onto different accounts - which is a huge advantage and extremely convenient for users. The only problem with this is for Google and Yahoo. They do not charge for their features which makes it hard for them to turn a profit. Advertising is the only way for these sites to make money- but with 4 out of 10,000 users only clicking on the ads, it is not the best way for companies to advertise their products, so i wouldnt be suprised if they choose to put their funds towards other means. It will be interesting to see where the next generation of social networking will pop up.
4 comments:
I remember when AOL first got big, having to wait to sign on for 20 minutes and when it went through...victory. i wish we were friends in 4th grade i bet we'd of been bff.
I believe that when dial up and the "prehistoric" internet system people seemed to be more relaxed and less chaotic. It is true that without this high speed internet non of these would probably exist, I am happy it exists and it is hard to believe that when a website takes more than 10 sec to load I get annoyed
I really found it interesting that only 4 of 10,000 people actually click ads on websites. That number is astounging to me! But yeah, the good old days of internet tools like email and messenger costing money are over. I must say, I'm glad I don't have to pay for things like Internet Explorer. However, I do wonder how businesses like Google will survive without proper profits. Like Jackie said, I can't wait to see what lies ahead for the internet!
I really think yahoo and google are trying to combine their e-mail chats and social networking websites to combat social networking websites. I am curious to see what will happen once gchat is a combination of facebook.
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