Aol, Yahoo! and MySpace to start a baby-sitters club
By Becky Lang
Aol’s parents just hooked Aol’s bedroom up with a flashy new phone, so Aol thinks it’s the perfect time to start a business. But not just any business – a baby-Sitters club! The first call Aol made was to Yahoo! and my___, who Aol knew surely had extra time on their hands. At first, Yahoo! and my___ weren’t convinced. A baby-Sitters club? But what about their studies? But after Aol pointed out that they’d earn extra cash to buy fun stuff like Keds sneakers and Swedish Fish, they finally agreed. No more begging mom and dad for money! What kind of adventures will the three fading web giants find when they put out their first Baby-Sitters Club business card?
All this talk about Aol buying Yahoo! is depressing. Don’t they both just signify the Internet of the past? Even the president of Yahoo!, Carol Bartz*, admitted that she didn’t know what exactly Yahoo! did when she took over the position. Aol and Yahoo! currently characterize themselves as Internet hangouts, which basically means a homepage-style site that aggregates content from the web. That’s not much of a service.
What do you think?
Is it a good move?
How can they become useful?
What kind of branding would they need to do to signify something other than the Internet past?
Is Google laughing?
*I remember chuckling while reading a Wired profile on Bartz. She said that when she interviews people, she’ll flat-out ask them if they’re assholes. She was surprised by how often people immediately got a You got me. I’m an asshole. look on their faces. I want to try that sometime.