AOL announced plans to fork out $850 million for Bebo, a social-networking site with a strong presence in the United Kingdom, but a distant rival in the U.S. to heavyweights such as MySpace and FaceBook. The acquisition is the single biggest AOL has made in several years, as it attempts to transform itself from an Internet-access subscription business into an advertising-focused one. The deal represents a major bet that online advertising will retain its sparkle and social-networking sites will benefit. The transaction is rooted in the belief that social networking is becoming a major gateway for how people use media and services on the Web, including email, search and video. "People are using social networks as their prism to the online world," said Bebo President Joanna Shields, a former Google Inc. executive who joined Bebo last year and is expected to remain at the helm.
I done a (paid) blog on this just yesterday for a site. Bebo is actully quite big in the U.S and is only popular (really) in Ireland and New Zealand it also claims to have over 40 million members. Its a nice penny in AOL's pocket. Anyone else notice the internet giants starting to eat the little things up.
Social networking site is the future of internet. But only few lucky one will be remain established just like Coke and Pepsi or Adidas, Nike and Reebok.
If i know AOL right.. they will turn bebo into an ad farm like all the rest of there sites and software.
Because of crooked links to certain organizations (that aol have), I have emailed them to have my details removed from their systems