AOL to Add Free Phone to Instant Messaging Feature
By SAUL HANSELL and JOHN MARKOFF | May 5, 2006
[FAC: AOL Phoneline. The name really inspires being out there on the bleeding edge, doesn't it? I wonder how much AOL's marketing and image consultants charged them to come up with that one. A snip from the article: "The free phone number is a new twist on services that allow calls between regular phones and PC's, an idea made popular by Skype, which is owned by eBay, and copied by others, like Yahoo through its instant message software." It's all about stickiness, and getting more so. ]
AOL is preparing to offer the 41 million users of its instant messaging system a free phone number that will allow people to call them from regular phones while they are online.
The move is part of a broad effort by AOL — which has been buffeted by defections from its flagship dial-up Internet service — to capitalize on the continued popularity of its decade-old AIM instant message system.
In addition to expanded Internet calling features, AOL also plans to introduce AIM Pages, an effort to compete with MySpace.com, the rapidly growing social networking service. MySpace, which is owned by the News Corporation, gives its 70 million mostly young members a place to post their writings, photographs, favorite music and videoclips.
Continued at:
nytimes.com |
