AOL Launches New Personal Finance Site, Image GalleryBut The Brand Is Absent
This story was written by David Kaplan.
Despite shifting focus to an ad-supported business and ad network years ago, AOL (NYSE: TWX) can't seem to shake the image of being known as that dial-up ISP. So rather than continue to fight, AOL is finding that it might just be better to erase it, or at least downplay it somewhat. Case in point: two new channels, a personal finance site called WalletPop and a free professional images site, Pixcetera, debuted this morningboth without the AOL brand prominently featured on its site (scroll way down) or in the URL. That said, the sites do have the same look and feel of others and AOL's main page features a link that does connect directly to WalletPopbut the link only says "Money" and doesn't identify the site by name. As AOL continues its site rolloutthe company is in the process of creating a new one aimed at younger women for launch later this yearexpect the AOL name to be less and less prominent as the portals become less popular in the minds of users. More details on WalletPop announcement is here.
By David Kaplan