This week, AOL Search is set to roll out and enhanced version of their search portal. The organic results say they are “Enhanced by Google” which means their results are the same as the Google results.
One search engine news portal exclaims that AOL Search is aiming to compete head-to-head with Google, Yahoo! and MSN. I don’t think so.
As long as AOL Search uses the Google database and results, they can repackage the results page all they want, but they will never be serious competition for the Big 3.
If you do a few quick searches with the new AOL Search interface, you’ll notice that the new AOL Search includes more advertising space than the other major search engines. Some searches deliver sponsored results (paid advertisements) at the top and bottom of the page.
For instance, if you do a search for “funny t-shirts” you get 10 organic listings sandwiched in-between 8 paid listings. On the top right is a box called “Web Offers & More” which contains 4 more general paid link categories and once you click on a category, you’re delivered 10 more paid advertisements.
To me, the whole new look is advertiser-focused rather than user-focused. I don’t particularly like the hard sell approach the new AOL Search is taking.
One redeeming feature of the new AOL Search is the Snapshot feature that appears at the top of some listings. Though a Snapshot may be a paid advertisement, most often it is an attempt by the AOL editors (who hand-pick the Snapshot) to deliver real, non-paid content to the user.
All in all, though, the new AOL Search is just a repackaged Google, with a few advertiser-focused bells and whistles. For AOL Search to truly be successful, they need to establish their own database and identity to compete with the Big Boys.
