Microsoft buying AOL, how would it affect you?

There has been talk that Microsoft is wanting to buy AOL. Most people wouldn’t really care, but more concern needs to be made. The main reason may be that MSN isn’t doing too well, but there is a lot that people need to think about.

AOL owns companies that have products or services that compete with Microsoft. Is this interesting, what if Microsoft decided to combine, or just do away with the products? Wouldn’t seem like a bad idea, now would it? Lets take a look at what Microsoft could do.

Netscape, one of the main competitors to Internet Explorer, is owned by AOL. Wouldn’t be smart for Microsoft to force Netscape to use the IE engine, and not the open source Gecko, which Mozilla Firefox uses? Many average users have never heard or used Firefox, but may have used Netspace due to the fact that Netscape has been around for years, and is bundled with many programs. This user base would easily be shifted over to Internet Explorer, without their knowledge.

How about Winamp? Nullsoft was acquired by AOL in 1999, and is now a division of AOL Music. I don’t even want to think what Microsoft could do to Winamp. I mean, if they own two media players, the anti-trust thing would blow up even more. Would they shut down Nullsoft? Nullsoft is rumored to have only three employees now, and they where anti-Microsoft to start with. SHOUTcast is an open source project that competes with Microsoft’s Media Server. No telling what could happen there.

MSN Messenger or AIM? If their not complete idiots, which very well may be the case, they won’t touch AIM. AIM has been around much longer than MSN messenger, and has much more to offer, such as free 1GB email, blog, AOL Radio, etc. Everyone uses AIM, they wouldn’t dare touch it, but hey, it’s Microsoft.

AOL Radio is pretty cool personally, I prefer it more than Yahoo’s LAUCHcast, and MSN Music. MSN Music is, basically, Microsoft’s lame attempt at iTunes. There’s just nothing there that I can’t get from AOL Radio or iTunes. They could, however, merge MSN Music with AOL Radio to offer streaming radio stations, and also offer the $0.99 downloads they already offer.

The home pages of AOL and MSN are similar, but I find AOL’s to be easier on the eyes with the recent redesign. The most noticeable ad on the main page is smaller than on MSN, and fits better. The navigation is a little better on MSN, because it offers everything from one click. On AOL, it offers the most common links, much like Yahoo. MSN, in my opinion, seems to shout, “Oh! Lookie at what we offer!” more than just easy too use navigation.

MSN has Hotmail, AOL has AIM Mail. I have used both, and I believe AIM Mail is way better. The reasons include better design, more storage (1gb vs. Hotmail’s 250mb), free POP access (Hotmail charges), and better spam filtering. Hotmail has more users, and AIM Mail is new, so Microsoft may just leave it alone.

The real threat to Microsoft in the online game is Google. Google has said that they want to buy AOL, and frankly, I’d rather see Google buy AOL than Microsoft. We will have to see if Microsoft buys AOL and what they will do, but AOL has changed a great amount over the last year, and is actually making a better experience from my point of view. I have to honestly say I don’t trust Microsoft with AOL’s products, it seems too scary what they can do.