Get By With a Little Help From Your Competitors???!!!!

When you think of search engines, you probably immediately think Google or Yahoo. Well AOL wants to change that and they want to accomplish this goal by actually using their competitors. AOL is introducing a new search portal and rather than spending millions of dollars in traditional television marketing, AOL is actually using the Internet to let users know about this new service according to today's New York Times.

AOL is actually buying advertising space on Google, marketing its new portal. They want to rival Google and they are using Google to get the word out. It is a little ironic isn't it? Google says it does not mind taking AOL's money but I have to wonder if this is a good business move on its part. I do not think that AOL will take the market share for search engines away from Google, but I can only wonder what will happen next.

Will a move like this find a way into political Internet advertising? Are we going to see Democratic Candidates buying advertising space on Republican Web sites? Would those Republican Web sites be willing to take money from their competitors? Some say that the political world is behind the corporate world in terms of Internet use, so will they one day adopt these tactics as well?

I guess we will just have to wait and see if AOL made a sound investment in its out of the ordinary advertising strategy. Time will only tell....