О некоторых SEO-следствиях решения AOL остаться с движком Google,

a не перепрыгивать с него на MSN.


    As part of the deal with Google, the search advertising company will teach
    AOL how to optimize its pages for best placement in the Google rankings.




    Take the billion dollars Google is throwing at Time Warner for five percent of
    AOL, and Google will throw in some lessons on search engine optimization. The
    New York Times included
    a little tidbit in the second page of its story about this:





    Google will also provide technical assistance so AOL can create Web pages that
    will appear more prominently in the search results list. But this assistance
    will not change computer formulas that determine the order in which pages are
    listed in Google's search results.



    "The Search"
    author John Battelle, whose Federated Media has the New York Times Company as an
    investor, commented in the Times that the search placement, and a similar
    arrangement for videos in Google Video, "represents a step closer to a
    slippery slope" for Google.



    AOL co-founder Steve Case penned
    an article that appeared in the Washington Post that may have influenced Time
    Warner's agreement with Google, the Times report said:





    Mr. Case's argument was timed specifically to encourage a Google deal, said
    one person close to him. Mr. Case's longstanding animosity toward Microsoft
    played a part, this person said, but his main reasoning was that Google has
    proved itself far smarter about the Internet than Microsoft.



    The most surprising part of the sudden switch from Microsoft to Google by AOL is
    this statement in the article:





    An executive involved in the talks said Time Warner asked Microsoft to give
    AOL similar preferred placement in advertising and in its Web index and that
    Microsoft refused, calling the request unethical.



    Search marketing professionals should keep an eye on AOL pages after the deal
    gets finalized and AOL starts appearing higher in Google's index. Although it is
    assumed Google's help will be with regards to advertising, the report doesn't
    specifically state this is so.



    If Google indeed does help AOL craft those pages to snare high spots in the
    organic listings, without manually tweaking the algorithms, those pages will be
    a masterclass in SEO design for those who want to score highly as well.



"AOL, You've Got SEO", by David A. Utter, 2005-12-19

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