Jupiter exec David Card has some comments on the *new* AOL web-based strategy:
He writes:
"To me, one of the key challenges is getting non-members to use AOL.com as a hub. AOL execs say, yeah, but if you take our existing Web reach, we?re only a few million users under Yahoo, so Job One is to increase page views, and get people to move across the network from within the network, rather than from the home page."
And:
"Shockingly, AOL is positioned to be the leader in RSS among the big portals, search engines, and Internet media companies. Gasp. While frankly, I don?t think RSS is really that important to the masses yet, if AOL does it right, it could teach a lot of mainstream users to use it...Nah, it?ll never happen."

Susan sez: Has AOL explained whether all the ad dollars it is planning to spend are what it takes to launch a new portal destination? Back in the day, it took deep, daily web apps and tools--email, search, personals, etc. to drive daily usage and content got shorter shrift--Will ads for all that AOL free entertainment pay off--or just drive the price of audience acquisition up to dizzying heights?

I share Card's skepticism...AOL is gonna have to pull more than one rabbit out of the hat to make a quick turnaround work.