SEL: MSN, AOL, Google: the Battle Rages On

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Search marketing in the new media era.

December 07, 2005

MSN, AOL, Google: the Battle Rages On

Greg Sterling interviewed Jim Riesenbach, SVP of AOL’s Search & Directional Media group at the Kelsey Group's recent Interactive Local Media 2005 Conference.

When Greg asked directly about "what would be the outcome of the much covered negotiations for a stake in AOL," Riesenbach sidestepped with "a thoughtful answer about how AOL would not be sought after unless its new strategy were paying dividends."

Here's Greg: The AOL-MSN-Google Guessing Game

Gary Price said, citing Reuters, "we might learn of a final decision by Christmas."

Here's the Reuters story: Microsoft, Google still vying for AOL

And here's the latest comScore numbers on unique visitors for October 2005, showing that, for October at least, and according to comScore, if MSN gets AOL's traffic they'll have more uniques than both Google and Yahoo:

The partnership is a crucial play for MSN, pretty much a make-or-break on their growth in search. For '06 at least.

Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive | permalink | +marktd |

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