Just for those who didn’t know: Google just plunked down another billion dollars for a chunk of AOL. It equals a 5% share in AOL, yet some people believe it will change Google. For Immediate Release has said they think there might be banner ads and preferential treatment for Time Warner AOL sites via Google because of this. I doubt it. I’m most interested in what’s going to happen to AOL’s efforts to go content-centric for their value to users. What a change that’s been from their old days of trying to lock you in to a walled garden of limited content! I am waiting to hear from my friends at the Social Software blog on Weblogs Inc. (an AOL property as of a few months ago) on this. No word yet.

The Washington Post on the Google/AOL deal.
ZDNet on Google/AOL.

There’s two angles…make up your own mind. Does this mean anything?