AOL opens its doors launching specialized Web sites

Recent reports say AOL is branching off to create specialized websites in order to reach a wider audience. Because internet users have become more and more, let’s say, picky, in terms of where they search and what they search for, it is best to adapt to them than to try and shape up people’s minds.

So for the past several months AOL has been setting the pace by launching sites steered towards specific topics like fashion, music; managed by genre, sports, etc. Just these past few weeks it launched a series of new websites some of which are ParentDish for parents, The Boot for country music and The Boom Box for hip hop along with R&B.

The growth of such particular Web sites is due to the simple fact that people are spending less time on major sites like AOL and Yahoo!, backed up by the idea that they are seeking for more particular content, which at times could become hard to detect within such universal sites rather than those small ones intended for a distinct topic and target audience. “The consumer market is clearly fragmenting,” said Bill Wilson, AOL’s executive vice president for vertical programming. “We wanted to give people many front doors, not just one front door to come in.” One thing that’s important to keep in mind is that not everyone thinks the same, each person is an individual, hence the reason behind AOL’s shift from reaching the masses to more of a one-to-one focus.

In terms of online advertising, the aftermath could be utterly advantageous. Despite the bumpy path advertising in general may be traversing right now, online ad revenue can definitely come afloat thanks to these fragmented websites. So the pursuit for the right audience couldn’t possibly be better exploited through these niche sites; its been handed to advertisers on a silver platter- all that’s missing is engaging and effective ads. In addition, having all audiences segmented into the different specialized portals makes it easier for targeting messages, whether its the tonality, the style, customs, behaviors, these are all factors that could be defined in the long run leading way to placement advertising.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 9:48 am and is filed under Media News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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