AOL And Google Extend Partnership

Based in Silicon Valley, Google has offices scattered around America, Asia, and Europe. AOL (America Online) Incorporated, along with its subsidiaries, is a company that operates a top Web brand network and the biggest Web access subscription assistance in the US. Among those brands include ICQ services, CompuServe, Netscape, Moviefone, MapQuest, the AOL service and the AOL.com site. Also, AOL provides several digital services like TotalTalk voice assistance. Headquartered in Dulles, Virginia, the company has branches in Europe and Canada.

These online giants have been in good terms for years, having engaged in a partnership starting in 2002. Just this September 2nd, Thursday, they renewed that collaboration and signed an agreement that extends their advertising and search alliance for five more years. Google will continue to run the natural and paid search results from AOL, and the two companies will share the associated ad income. The agreement likewise involved mobile search properties as well as a content sharing association with YouTube, the most famous video venue for Google.

According to a statement disclosed by AOL chief executive officer Tim Armstrong, "After nearly a decade-long partnership in search, were looking forward to expanding our global relationship to mobile search and YouTube. All aspects of our partnership will be improved by this deal."

AOL users, said Armstrong, will get better search ads and search experiences from "the best search company in the world."

The expansion partnership could not have come at a better time for AOL, as it may really need it due to its 38% search query drop every year, as stated by a report. Based on comScores report, it handled only 2.3% of US searches last July 2010.

With the renewed deal, it gave Google a 2.3% search market lock up, as recorded at comScore. The search engine recently has 65.8% of the market, while competitor Microsoft, between Yahoo and Bing, has only 27.1%.

Apart from Web search, the recent contract between the two companies extended Googles mobile capabilities and premium YouTube content, both of which are their top priorities. Taking on these efforts is "particularly exciting," as told by Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. "These areas are now at the heart of users online experiences and at the core of both of our businesses," he added.