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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DepyDog who wrote (16844)	5/12/1999 6:06:00 PM
From: Annette	Respond to of 41369

Well, they own it, I believe. It not only lets you chat real time with other users, but if you have your friends and aquaintences added to your menu, you will be notified if they come on line. ICQ links to other sites.

To: DepyDog who wrote (16844)	5/12/1999 6:06:00 PM
From: Vendit™	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 41369

Dep, ICQ equals millions of daily hits for AOL and is now being reborn to fit into the AOL marketing picture from what I can gather. I do use it and I can tell you that since AOL bought them there have been many changes and improvements such as free voice messaging as well as free long distance phone calls over the Internet. Back to your original question of how will AOL make money with ICQ? AOL will be able to charge additional ad revenues based on the increased hits generated by ICQ users as well as an eventual new advertising medium from AOL to the ICQ users. They number in the 100's of millions BTW. Vendit

To: DepyDog who wrote (16844)	5/12/1999 9:05:00 PM
From: Islander99	Respond to of 41369

Depy, Not sure if AOL has gotten around yet to "integrating" ICQ, but there are all kinds of possibilities here. ICQ has been wildly successful as a give-away, non-Web Internet communications app. It is why AOL and Yahoo both developed instant messenger features. So now, AOL can work to integrate ICQ with AOL Instant Messenger to create the dominant (by far) instant communications device on the Internet. This means eyeballs, and where eyeballs roam, advertising is sure to follow. AOL can now make advertising deals based on eyeballs visiting AOL, AOL.Com, CompuServe, Netscape, ICQ and for all I know Worldcom (due to the three-way nature of the CompuServe purchase). This is conceptually similar to Microsoft's purchase of "free" Hotmail and, perhaps, the Link Exchange. Aggregation of eyeballs is the prize in all of these acquisitions. --Islander99