Dpreview.com (Digital Photography Review)

“One of the difficulties of operating dpreview.com independently has been the balance between producing content and delivering new site features. Now, with the support of Amazon, I’ll be able to devote more of my time to expanding and improving our features – such as product reviews and discussion forums while still delivering the high-quality content that our readers have come to expect.”

Dpreview.com offers in-depth reviews of the latest digital cameras and accessories, active discussion forums, digital photography and imaging news, sample images, a dynamic digital camera buyers’ guide, side-by-side comparisons of the most popular models, and the web’s most comprehensive database of digital camera features and specifications.

Their two point oh round-up looks like this:

1. Blo.gs - blog pinging service
2. Flickr - photo sharing
3. Upcoming - price unknown
4. del.icio.us  – social bookmarking
5. Konfabulator – desktop search
6. Jumpcut – online video
7. Bix – online karaoke
8. MyBlogLog – social networking

Yahoo certainly paid less for the whole basket of web 2.0 apps than Google paid for YouTube… perhaps they learnt from the experience of spendingUS$3.6bn on GeoCities in 1999.

Wikipedia has a complete list of Yahoo acquisitions dating back to the (first) dotcom boom.

Update: Pete Abilla has put together a neat timeline of acquisitions by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft using Ajax.

America Online (AOL) and Google are expanding their current strategic alliance to create a global online advertising partnership. The deal will make AOL content more accessible to Google web crawlers, expand display advertising through the Google network, enable Google Talk and AIM instant messaging users to communicate with each other, and allow for collaboration on online video offering. It includes a $1 billion investment in AOL by Google for an effective 5% equity stake.

This strategic alliance expands on the original relationship between the two companies which launched three years ago.

Time Warner chairman and CEO Dick Parsons says: “We’re very pleased to build significantly on our special relationship with Google in a way that will meaningfully strengthen AOL’s position in the fast-growing online advertising business and help drive more advertisers to its Web properties. This agreement is key to fulfilling our commitment to realise the potential of AOL’s very large online audience. As digital technologies continue to drive industries together, the great value and opportunity inherent in Time Warner’s structure and array of premier businesses becomes increasingly clear. A critical piece of this strategic alliance will be our content, which we will be making more accessible to Google users.”

Google CEO Eric Schmidt adds: “AOL is one of Google’s longest-standing partners, and we are thrilled to strengthen and expand our relationship. Today’s agreement leverages technologies from both companies to connect Google users worldwide to a wealth of new content. We’ve also created a simple way for AOL Marketplace advertisers to buy and place search-related advertising across the AOL network. This partnership is an important next step for our companies.”

Under the strategic alliance, Google and AOL will continue providing search technology to AOL’s network of Internet properties worldwide. AOL and Google have also agreed to extend the term of their existing European relationship, and, subject to mutual agreement, may extend the AOL marketplace internationally. In addition, Google, AOL and Time Warner may choose to expand the new partnership to Time Warner’s other advertising opportunities.

Google and the Future of AOL

When we assembled our new management team more than three years ago, AOL’s business model required serious attention. At the same time, there were huge distractions – from a broken advertising business to legal and regulatory issues – that we needed to sort through. So Don and the AOL team attacked the issues in a very deliberate way. First, even as we dealt with the distractions, we stabilized AOL and then began rebuilding it in a number of ways. Thanks to the great people at AOL, it has been delivering strong profit growth and free cash flow for the past two years. Second, while keeping our traditional narrowband service as profitable as possible, we accelerated our transition to take advantage of the growth in broadband and online advertising. To that end, we turned AOL.com into a vibrant Web portal and made it – with the best of Time Warner’s content and AOL’s features, all optimized for broadband – available for free to all Internet users.

And we’ve worked to overhaul our whole approach to online advertising. As part of that effort, we acquired Advertising.com, a premier provider of results-based marketing services, and established an important paid-search relationship with Google – helping AOL to grow its advertising revenue in 2005 for the first time in years. Many months ago, we began exploring the possibility that a partner might help us earn an even greater share of online advertising revenues faster. We were looking for an agreement that would enable us to: sell the full range of online advertising formats; build our Internet audience; capitalize on AOL’s access to Time Warner’s premier branded content; and preserve the Internet’s tremendous upside potential for Time Warner shareholders.

Our strategic alliance with Google promises to fulfill all of these objectives – starting with making AOL an even more effective player in online advertising. With this agreement, AOL’s sales force will now be able to sell all types of online advertising – including paid search – and we’ll explore expanding the partnership into selling television and print advertising. Google will also provide substantial promotion for our Web properties, driving traffic to AOL’s Web properties and making its content, particularly video, more easily accessible to Google users. In addition, Google will invest $1 billion for a 5% stake in AOL. We are very pleased that every one of our shareholders will benefit from our hard-won success in revitalizing AOL, as well as from this special relationship with Google. As this agreement shows, we continue to be leaders in turning the digital opportunities across all of our businesses into sustainable long-term value for our shareholders.

From internal memo from Dick Parsons

One word: Phew. Very glad it was Google and not Microsoft…

Interestingly for us (IPC), the deal means that “AOL’s sales team gets access to the Google Network, and Google will also give Time Warner’s media properties preferential treatment.”. Cool – we should therefore get preferential treatment as a Time Warner property

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/17/google_wins_aol/

December 14, 2005

Dear valued partner:

We are very pleased to inform you that PriceGrabber.com has become a part of Experian Interactive, a division of Experian, Inc, the global leader in information solutions. Experian operates in 28 countries with clients in over 60 countries and revenues of over $2.5 billion. Experian Interactive is a market leader in online lead generation and consumer marketing and accounts for nearly 20% of global Experian sales. Experian Interactive is comprised of key online marketing companies including LowerMyBills.com, Experian Consumer Direct, and ClassesUSA.com. As evidenced by the acquisition of PriceGrabber.com, continued expansion of Experian Interactive is a core part of Experian’s global growth strategy. We believe that as a result of this acquisition we will be in a better position to service our users, customers and partners.

We are very appreciative of the business relationship that we have developed with you and would like to thank you for your confidence and trust in PriceGrabber as well as your contribution to our success as a company. In the almost seven years since our inception, we have experienced incredible growth, thanks in large part to our distribution partners. With our acquisition by Experian, we will soon be entering an even more exciting time in our life as a company, with increased opportunities for success with our partners.
This acquisition combines:
 PriceGrabber.com, one of the Internet’s leading comparison shopping services;
 Experian Worldwide, a global leader in providing information solutions to businesses and consumers; and
 Experian Interactive, a subsidiary of Experian Inc. and one of the largest Internet companies in the world.
As a result of this transaction, Experian Interactive brings together industry leaders PriceGrabber.com, LowerMyBills.com and ConsumerInfo.com to offer consumers the largest set of comparison shopping services under one umbrella.
This transaction enhances our ability to succeed in comparison shopping and continue to offer the best service to our partners:
 Continued dedication to our partners. PriceGrabber.com remains dedicated to bringing the highest quality comparison shopping functionality, tools, and incremental revenue to our distribution partners.
 Confidence in our continued stability. Experian serves more than 50,000 clients in 60 countries and has annual sales exceeding $2.5 billion.
 Continued commitment of your PriceGrabber.com team representative. You can count on the same level of commitment and service from your PriceGrabber.com team representative.
We are very excited about this new development and our expanded capabilities as a result of this transaction. And we look forward to being able to continue to serve our partners and helping you become as successful as possible.
Sincerely,

Kamran Pourzanjani
President

Rumour has it that the purchase price was around US$30m (£17m), valuing each of their 300,000 user’s bookmarks at $100. They’re definitely paying for the community not the technology.

Daily Mail said the deal was part of its drive to boost its positions in key areas of the online advertising market.

For the perfect premium property in your prime location, check out County Life’s NEW property for sale website.