AOL plans to roll out major services in the coming months to compete with the likes of MySpace, Skype and others, according to chairman and CEO Jonathan Miller, interviewed by USA Today. AOL plans to build a MySpace-like network into AOL's AIM instant messaging service and is trying to keep up with Google, Yahoo and Microsoft as it shifts to an advertising-based business model. Market leader AIM has 43 million active users, and AOL will use that advantage and video offerings to compete with MySpace and will roll out a new social-networking service in eight weeks.
Miller says AIM "will be a full voice platform - competitive with Skype." He also plans to open AIM up to software developers.
AOL has already begun integrating video search from Truveo, and by mid-March 14,000 classic TV shows will become available on AOL for free, as part of the ad-supported In2TV service.
