Bruner's most interesting point, however, remains how top-heavy Web banner advertising remains. If Yahoo's smart, it can pick up both AltaVista and DoubleClick for a song, and double its fun. AOL's excuse for the hike is its investment in access. But many can turn a dollar at that price , and that fact hasn't been covered. But the future of that stock price depends on the Clueless proposition that customers will put up with being treated like mushrooms indefinitely.
People learn slowly, but they do learn.
Expect to read press releases later this year about how fast AOL is growing overseas, as its U.S. subscriber base peaks and begins to fall back. Speaking of AOL, it makes its money through paid affiliation agreements. Big merchants pay it millions of dollars for access to accounts AOL controls. Let's look at the lesser first. AudioNet has a deal with RealNetworks , to produce streaming programming using RealSystem software for play on AudioNet's servers.