Paid Content points to an Infoworld story on portals, news sites,search engines and customer satisfaction (or lack thereof) as reported by the most recent University of Michigan American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).
What's interesting here is not that Google (once again) leads the pack, but that there are some telling gaps between competitors in these categories. It seems ironic that AOL, which has such a complex, full-service offering, should be ranked at a low of 67 points as a portal, while Yahoo leads the group with 78 points.
Maybe this is yet more evidence that the all you can eat sub model just isn't working anymore--I would love to hear how execs at AOL talk between themselves about the value of premium content and services (which is a big part of their business) and the value of free access to content and services--which is where a big chunk of the AOL sub biz seems to be heading.