In the beginning of this month I wrote about AOL launching the latest version of their Video Search product. In the beginning of this week, I wrote about Nielsen/Netratings showing AOL Search trending up, and MSN Search trending down. Yesterday, Reuters ran an article that echoes what I said at the beginning of the week in an article titled “AOL, AskJeeves search growth outpace leaders.” Quoting from that article:
Between the first and second quarters of this year, the number of searches made on AOL, the online division of Time Warner Inc. (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Ask Jeeves grew 15 percent and 16 percent respectively, according to a Nielsen/Netratings study released on Thursday.
By comparison, the number of searches on Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) grew 6 percent and 9 percent respectively over the same period. The number of searches on Microsoft’s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) MSN fell 4 percent.
The article goes on to make clear that AOL is in no way a threat to the search market leader, Google, but it does show that AOL is making real progress in moving itself forward in the Internet space. These kinds of positive reports, along with announcements from Time Warner, paying a $0.05/share quarterly dividend, may help restore investor confidence that AOL is both a company and a brand that will continue to improve over time.
Programmer, husband, father, singer, guitarist, tinkerer, reverse engineer, strange, and living in New Jersey. 
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