AOL has had a web version of AIM for quite some time now.  I haven’t used it in a long time, but I remember it was powered by Java last time I used it.  Recently Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) sent out a press release stating that AOL launched AIM Express, a Flash-based version of AIM.   The URL for the new AIM Express is at: http://www.aim.com/aimexpress.adp.

“AIM Express raises the bar with its streamlined design and lightweight messaging experience,” stated David Liu, SVP AOL People Networks. “It’s now even easier for AIM users, especially those on-the-go, to connect with friends whether at home, at a coffee shop, the library, or wherever they have Web access.”

The new version of AIM Express includes tabbed IM conversations, status messages, text message mode, buddy rollover, and browser compatibility.  AOL also launched an AIM platform that is compatible with the Windows Mobile operating system.

When I heard about this news, the first thought I had was Meebo already exists.  Why switch to AIM Express from Meebo?  I can understand why people would use the mobile version of AIM Express, but the Flash-based online version seems pretty useless compared to Meebo.  Using Meebo, users can sign on to AIM, Yahoo!, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN, and Jabber at the same time.

There are several other services that took Meebo’s offerings and one-upped them too.  For example, Digsby is another instant messenger and social network aggregator.  Digsby supports AIM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, GTalk, Jabber, Facebook Chat, etc.

Pidgin is another example.  Pidgin supports Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, GTalk, Groupwise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, MySpaceIM, QQ, SILC, SIMPLE, Sametime, XMPP, Yahoo!, and Zephyr.

Will a lot of people use AIM Express?  Even though there are a plethora of alternatives for AIM Express, many people will end up using it because there is a link to it directly on AIM.com.  And everytime someone logs into the AIM desktop software, AIM.com is opened in the default browser unless it is switched off.  This increases the overall awareness of AIM Express.

TheWB.com is currently in Beta and is geared to launch on August 27.  Upon launch, TheWB.com will have full episodes of All Of Us, Roswell, Everwood, Blue Water High, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dangerous, Friends, Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill, Smallville, The Wayans Bros., The OC and Veronica Mars.  TV producers, McG and Josh Schwartz will be releasing a couple of new shows on TheWB.com such as Sorority Fever. 

McG is the director and producer of Terminator 4, Supernatural, and the Charlie’s Angels movies.  Schwartz is the writer and producer of Gossip Girl, Chuck, and The O.C.

“The launch of TheWB.com represents a natural progression of the Warner Bros. Television Group’s digital strategy and complements our core business, which is based upon episodic storytelling, first-class distribution and providing value to partners through advertising in a premium environment,” stated Bruce Rosenblum, President of Warner Bros. Television Group (WBTVG).

TheWB set-up a Facebook application and a Facebook fan page as part of the launch.

“These hit shows still have an incredible amount of equity with their audiences, who grew up with these characters and went through significant events in their lives just as some of the characters did on the programs,” stated Brent Poer, General Manager of TheWB.com. “And now, through TheWB.com, users will be able to take an unprecedented level of control over their own entertainment experience by easily editing, remixing, and literally ‘playing’ with their favorite shows. We’re giving the users final cut.”

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) signed on as the charter sponsor for TheWB.com.  TheWB.com is a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX).

Related Links:
1. TheWB Beta
2. WB Press Release

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) filed a report with the SEC this yesterday indicating that the 5% stake acquired in AOL LLC for $1 billion “may be impaired.”  Impairment means that an acquisition or investment is wearing away.

This may affect Google’s profits on their accounting books. 

“There can be no assurance that impairment charges will not be required in the future, and any such amounts may be material,” stated a Google spokesperson regarding the AOL investment.

One of the primary reasons for Google’s investment in AOL was to beat Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in an advertising bidding war.  Google was able to make deals with MySpace, Friendster, and AOL before Microsoft.  However, Microsoft won exclusive advertising deals with Facebook and Digg.  Google invested the $1 billion for 5% ownership in AOL in December 2005.

The bidding war drove AOL’s valuation up to roughly $20 billion.  Analysts believe that AOL’s values is now below $10 billion.  Within the last week, Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) stated that they were able to separate AOL’s dial-up entity from AOL’s Internet content and advertising entity on paper.

Earthlink Inc. may be a contender in buying AOL’s dial-up unit and both Microsoft and Yahoo! are rumored to be eyeing AOL’s online operations unit.  As a major shareholder, Google could also request Time Warner to buy back their stake in AOL or push for AOL to go public.  Google has not indicated the pursuitment of any of those options though. 

AOL was worth $240 billion at one point before the dot-com bubble burst.

Related Link:
1. Associated Press

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) has successfully separated the dial-up services from the rest of the company.  This was essential for AOL because dial-up is losing an uphill battle against broadband offerings.  Time Warner is now interested in selling AOL’s content and advertising businesses including AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).  Or Time Warner may look into partnering with other companies.

The reason why there is a higher priority in selling or partnering another company with AOL is because of the influence on Time Warner’s stock price.  Time Warner’s stock has been declining due to the loss of AOL dial-up’s marketshare.  It took several months to separate dial-up from the rest of the company because staff members had to learn how to segregate the revenues and liabilities from the different arms of the company.

When Time Warner completes a transaction that involves selling off AOL’s ad/content business, then the dial-up business will be next.  AOL is valued at $2-$3 billion according to several financial firms, but Time Warner may be looking for more.  Google invested $1 billion in AOL several years ago for 5% of the company.  AOL currently has 8.7 million dial-up subscribers.

Related Links:
1. WSJ

Larry Godwin, a Police Director for the city of Memphis, Tenn. and the city itself is subpoenaing AOL in order to find out the names of bloggers that write for MPD Enforcer 2.0.  MPD Enforcer 2.0 constantly chastises the actions taken by the Memphis Police Department. 

“In what could be a landmark case of privacy and the 1st Amendment,” stated Dirk Diggler MPD on MPD Enforcer 2.0. “Godwin has illegally used his position and the City of Memphis as a ram to ruin the Constitution of the United States.  Dirk Diggler MPD is the fake name used by the bloggers on the site.  Diggler was actually a character name used on the movie Boogie Nights.

In order to protect themselves in the courtroom, MPD Enforcer 2.0 is working with the Public Citizen Litigation Group, a group made for the interest of the public and founded by Ralph Nader.

“Some members of the Enforcer 2.0 have contacted their attorneys and we are in the process of filing a lawsuit against Larry and the City of Memphis. What’s wrong Larry? The truth hurt?” wrote Diggler on the blog after they found out that the City of Memphis and Godwin subpoenaed AOL to find out the identities of MPD Enforcer 2.0.

“You can complain about the government, and you should be able to do that without fear of retaliation or threatening actions on the part of the people in these positions,” stated Lillie Coney, an Associate Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).  “I guess they’ve kind of annoyed them at some level, but you really don’t want to see law enforcement or government resources spent in this way.”  EPIC is a Washington, D.C. based organization formed in 1994 that focuses on protecting civil liberties on the Internet.

“We are quite interested in preserving the anonymity of the bloggers,” added Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee. “Anonymous speech has long been protected speech under the First Amendment.”

This is a classic case of determining whether the First Amendment applies when published content may be considered slander.  If the content that MPD Enforcer 2.0 publishes is true, then Dirk Diggler is innocent.  The e-mail address of the blog is hosted by AOL on the @aim.com domain. 

Related Links:
1. MPD Enforcer 2.0
2. Commercial Appeal

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) subsidiary and one of the biggest Digg copycats that I have seen thus far, Propeller has relaunched into a lamer version than it’s 1.0 version.  When the site relaunched this morning, Propeller got rid of the Digg-like voting scheme, but the site is now telling their users to “Prop It,” also known as voting for stories to make it to the homepage.  The site is now using a scale of 1-10 for their stories.

Members of the new Propeller can create groups too.  Some of the most recently created groups are Firefox, Offbeat, Britney Spears, StumbleUpon, Jovial’s Group, Make Money Online, google, Organization, 90210, and Autos. 

Propeller categories include Arts/Entertainment, Business/Finance, Family, Humor, News, Science/Technology, Sports, and Style.  When a story makes it to the homepage of Propeller, they appear on the homepages of AOL and AOL News too. 

The biggest flaw that the new Propeller has right now is that they are giving their community too much power.  Spammers will be having a party with that ability.  The new Propeller site is pretty ugly too.  Simpletons using the site will not be able to tell what part of the site is a text ad and what part is actually content.  I really think that this site needs a major design overhaul.

The concept of Propeller first started on Netscape.com.  The idea was led by Jason Calacanis.  Calacanis hired several top users on Digg, Reddit, Flickr, and Newsvine to drive the top stories on Netscape.com.  Kevin Rose, founder of Digg called out Calacanis for doing this, but later the two ended their feud.  The voting idea was killed off of Netscape.com and then later moved to Propeller.   

Any thoughts on the new Propeller?  Comment away.

Related Links:
Propeller
TechCrunch

Veoh is a video sharing website based in San Diego, Calif.  Michael Eisner, former Disney chairman is on the Board of Veoh.  Eisner was one of the investors in Veoh’s $12.5 million in second round funding in April 2006.  Eisner also participated in the $25 million Series C round of funding in August 2007 as well.  And today Veoh raised $30 million in funding from Intel Capital, Adobe Systems, Shelter Capital Partners, Spark Capital, Goldman Sachs, The Tornate Company, Time Warner, and several other investors.

Veoh has two viewing options for their site.  The first option is to allow users to stream videos from the web, but they provide full episodes of television shows giving them the leg-up on YouTube.  The second option is to watch high quality videos using VeohTV through p2p technology.  Like YouTube, Veoh compresses video using Adobe Flash.

Veoh claims that they receive 28 million unique visitors who spend 100 minutes per month on their site on average.  Veoh isn’t that far behind DailyMotion and Metacafe in terms of traffic.

Information Source:
[1] TechCrunch: Veoh Raises Another $30 Million From Intel Capital, Adobe, and Gordon Crawford by Erick Schonfeld

Meebo, the online chat application that is powered by AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber has raised a Series C round of investment at $25 million. JAFCO Ventures was the lead investor. Other investors include Time Warner, KTB Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Meebo was started in September 2005 and is currently valuated at $200 million.

Meebo is a top 400 site within Alexa.  The online instant message company plans to utilize their partnership through Time Warner by working with its subsidiaries such as AOL, TMZ, New Line Cinema, People Magazine, and CNN.

Meebo will be expanding to Japan and Korea with this round of funding.  Meebo also has partnerships with VideoEgg, CBS, PUMA, and 4 record labels.  Meebo started in September 2005 and has over 29 million users sending over 150 million IMs daily.

The actual name of the company was written on a napkin by the three co-founders.   What is the deal with  coming up with business plans and Internet company names on napkins?

“We’re absolutely convinced at Cox that online revenue is continuing to grow,”stated John Dyer, EVP of Cox Enterprises. “If you look at Cox’s history, we’ve not necessarily been the first into a space… But we’ve prided ourselves in the course of history in being early investors.”

Cox Enterprises, the communications company that owns a large number of TV, radio, and newspaper companies is planning to acquire Adify Corporation. Adify is an advertising company that brokers ads for publishers and spreads advertisements for marketers. Cox plans on acquiring the digital advertising company for $300 million.

Adify’s clients include Martha Stewart Living Omimedia and several finance web sites created owned by Forbes Inc.

Early investors in Adify include NBC and Time Warner.  These companies will cash out and won’t have any further influence on Adify’s operations.  NBC will still be a customer.  Cox also owns Autotrader.com.