When selling ads on TV, shows that has higher Neilson's rating (hence viewership)command higher rates. Yahoo! is free to use, so it can get a lot more viewers than AOL. Ask 50 million websurfers what they would show to a newbie as introduction to the web, Yahoo! would be the most common answer. Even among AOL members this is probably true.
Hmm..I guess that depends on what studies you use. I remember reports (to lazy to search right now) that the aol.com website was on par with Yahoo!, Netscape and Microsoft as far as page views go. As for newbies and the web, that's right down AOL's marketing alley.
I don't know why it is so difficult for us to agree on this. AOL is like a local cable company that broadcasts only to 11 million, Yahoo! on the other hand is a free global network channel that everyone has access to. So who can charge a higher ad rate?
Your right in a sense that AOL "broadcasts" and has paid subscribers, while Yahoo! does not. To be honest, I don't know who charges a higher ad rate - but that doesn't matter. What does matter to the advertisers out there is who is better at targeting marketing segments, who can we track, etc. On any given evening, AOL has more subscribers online then CNN or MTV. Usage has increased. If anything, AOL would rather be compared to tv media then internet media.
Oh yeah, also forgot to mention that fact that AOL Studios is continuing their build out. Electra, Entertainment Asylum and Digital City to name a few. Did you know that when Digital City New York previewed, it received over 8 million hits its first week up. That was an industry record.
By listing what's on the Internet, Yahoo!'s effective content is everything on the net. So Yahoo! spends a lot less money than AOL does to create the so-call content. AOL also has ISP & POP overheads. It doesn't matter who owns the modems. AOL still has to pay for their maintaince and usage one way or another.
I can understand though, if you are an AOL member, that you don't visit Yahoo! very often. So to you, none of this makes sense.
Now your really reaching - so now Yahoo! is effectivly the internet? It has made the hundreds of millions of web pages its very own? That is simply crazy. Go use Infoseek, HotBot, Excite, Lycos, Norther Light, Alta Vista, etc. etc.
BTW, I work on the web as a living. Yes, my hobby has turned into my life. No more boring taxes :-) And yes, I use Yahoo! everyday, and it makes perfect sense to me.
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