AOL and Yahoo Contemplate Suicide

AOL and Yahoo take lead in putting price on e-mail

In what may be the dumbest move yet on the internet, both AOL and Yahoo are looking at trying to charge companies to send their customers e-mail. The end result: people are going to desert the free e-mail services of Yahoo in droves and AOL is going to lose even more of its customer base.

This is an utterly ridiculous plan which - according to the PR people - is designed to reduce spam, but it's really just a thinly veiled plan to increase the bottom lines of these companies. Evidently they feel that their users are too stupid to figure that out.

The article barely touches on the potential downside for their customers: that unless a company is willing to pay, their mail won't make it through as everything from registration and order confirmation e-mails to newsletters and coupons that the customer has requested will be routed to their spam filters.

Given the number of other choices available either for free or at significant discounts to what AOL charges, why would anyone continue using their services? If I place an order or register for something online I don't want to have to wonder if I'm going to get my confirmation because the company I order from hasn't paid AOL or Yahoo's extortion fee. Answer: I won't, and neither will most other people. We'll simply find another free e-mail service that doesn't have their ridiculous charges attached.

AOL has made so many ill-advised moves since the early days of widespread internet use when they were the dominant player (remember that?) that this would be just another in a long list. Yahoo should know better, but their moves of late haven't exactly inspired confidence in the long-term strategy there either.

It'll be interesting to see how long this lasts. My guess is that it'll be dead in the water not long after they implement it as soon as they see how people react to e-mail extortion...