Krishna Srinivasan’s Blog

AOL today announced the Open Mobile Platform, which the company plans to release to developers this summer. AOL says the software development platform will help developers create applications across major mobile device operating systems including BREW, Java, Linux, RIM, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. The platform will consist of three parts: an XML-based scripting language, a device client, and an application server.

AOL’s platform differs from efforts like Google’s Android, which was demoed today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, in that it isn’t a singular phone operating system that attempts to lock users into one way of doing things. Rather, it is a software development platform for multiple operating systems that aims to make it easier for developers to deploy apps across the various mobile OS and platform options.

Lest you think the entire endeavor is completely altruistic on AOL’s part, the Open Mobile Platform is also the unified “software module” that AOL hinted at last September, which the company hopes will push its services and APIs onto as many mobile devices as possible. The platform is designed to play nice with third-party APIs, as well as those from AOL including AIM, AOL Mail, AOL Video, MapQuest, Userplane, Truveo, and Winamp. AOL is counting on developers to create mobile applications that lean on AOL services and can be deployed across multiple mobile device operating systems. Read More>>

Yahoo Inc., which rejected Microsoft Corp.’s unsolicited $44.6 billion bid Monday as too low, wants to restart merger talks with Time Warner Inc.’s AOL unit, according to a London newspaper.

The Times said, without citing its sources, that the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company (NASDAQ: YHOO) is exploring merger talks with AOL, as well as deals with Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) or Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS).

The paper reported that previous talks between Yahoo and AOL failed because of differences over price.

Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) said last week that it planned to split AOL’s Internet access business from its Web portal and advertising business.

The possible Yahoo-AOL talks came as Yahoo formally rejected Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) $31 per share offer as too low. Reports over the weekend said Yahoo won’t consider an offer below $40 a share, which would boost the price by about $12 billion.

In the statement released Monday, Yahoo said its board is “continually evaluating all of its strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all stockholders.”

Microsoft’s $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo on Friday revived debate about AOL’s plan to remake itself as an online advertising company and whether it might too become a target for acquisition.

AOL has been on a tear assembling an advertising network called Platform A that is meant to be the basis for the company’s future growth. At the same time, discussions have surfaced occasionally at AOL’s corporate parent, Time Warner, over whether the subsidiary should be spun out in part or whole.

In November, new Time Warner chief executive Jeffrey Bewkes said he would consider selling parts of the company to enhance its “strategic advantage.” Time Warner’s stock has lagged for years as its merger with AOL in 2001 failed to live up to its promise.

Among those that could take an interest in AOL include Google, which already owns 5 percent of the Internet giant and is in the process of buying online ad business DoubleClick. This weekend, Google made clear its concern about the Microsoft-Yahoo deal as it said that the bid “raises troubling questions” for “openness and innovation” on the Web. Another possible suitor for AOL is Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., which has shown its willingness to go after big enterprises by buying such businesses as MySpace and Dow Jones.

Yet analysts were skeptical that a sale was in the cards. Read More>>

Today, we would’ve been penning AOL’s Netscape’s orbituary had it not been for the last minute breather given to the browser on Wednesday this week.

Tom Drapeau, director of Netscape, AOL, who famously stopped development on Netscape in December last year, and who set Feb 1, 2008 as the deadline for ending all support to the browser was the same person who on Wednesday pushed forth the deadline to March 1st this year
The reason he cited is that Netscape and partners need more time to complete work on the tools necessary for users to migrate to Mozilla’s Firefox or Flock’s Flock browsers.

In a post to the Netscape blog, Drapeau explained that Mozilla, Flock, and AOL are working towards providing tools to ease migration to the recommended Flock and Firefox alternatives.

He also said that for Netscape 9 users, an upgrade would be issued through the browser’s integrated update feature to help streamline the process of choosing between alternatives (Firefox and Flock).

But even for Drapeau, Flock is a new recommendation, because in December 2007, he had recommended only Firefox as possible successor to Netscape. Flock is a free browser with social networking features, and is built on Firefox code base. read full story

4 years ago today, 15 July 2003, AOL Time Warner disbanded Netscape Communications Corporation - the company that sparked the Dot Com Internet boom in the mid-90’s with its 1995 IPO. Also 4 years ago today, The Mozilla Foundation was established. mozillaZine reported at the time:

“It has been learned through public and private sources that AOL has cut or will cut the remaining team working on Mozilla in a mass firing and are dismantling what was left of Netscape (they’ve even pulled the logos off the buildings). Some will remain working on Mozilla during the transition, and will move to other jobs within AOL.

The news isn’t all doom and gloom, folks. I’ve been informed that the number of volunteer Mozilla hackers started eclipsing the number of Netscape hackers last month, and that a number of folks have already been snatched up by other organizations. “.More>>

ILoveIM.com is less sophisticated than many of the other Web-based IM apps I tested. From its advertising-heavy home page to its limited features, this service lacks broad appeal.
You can login ILoveIM.com
ILoveIM provides the service for the following a/c’s,

• MSN
• OLD MSN
• Yahoo
• AOL
• GTalk

When you log on to ILoveIM, the service informs you that you may have to wait as long as 30 seconds to access your information. That may not seem like a long time, but it’s significantly longer than for other services we tested. Once you’re logged on, you learn that you may have to wait another 15 seconds for your buddy list to appear.

ILoveIM.com is a bare-bones service that you could use to access your IM account in a pinch. More>>