08 September 2009 | Author: D. Warburton Search Copywriter

Former Yahoo! executive plans to revitalise AOL

Former Yahoo! executive Brad Garlinghouse has been inaugurated as president of Internet and mobile communications at AOL, having been lured away from Google in April.

The New York Times reports that Mr Garlinghouse will head the company's expanding Silicon Valley operations, with the objectives of increasing AOL's e-mail and instant messaging services and fighting to maintain and improve AOL's standing against market leaders such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and Facebook.

Yahoo! has been losing prominent staff since the announcement of last year's partnership with Microsoft, and Mr Garlinghouse was a particularly notorious example. In a 2006 memo written to senior executives, he complained that Yahoo! was spreading itself too thinly, like "peanut butter on toast," and needed to focus on a smaller set of priorities to remain competitive.

Mr Garlinghouse has explained that AOL is not currently facing the same challenges as Yahoo! in 2006, praising the company's "clarity of vision and strategy" in an interview on Monday.

The new president has confirmed that AOL's array of communications products remain its key strength, and continue to drive traffic to the company's other offerings. However, the company's traditionally popular e-mail service is facing tough competition from the likes of Google Mail, which has overtaken AOL to become the third most widely used e-mail service after Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail.

Mr Garlinghouse has also laid out a plan for AOL to become a leader in display advertising, and a major online destination offering original content to users. Almost a decade after taking over the communications company, Time Warner has also revealed that it plans to release AOL as an independent company by the close of 2009.