AOL has always been the perfect example of a ‘Locked door’ ISP. It has tons of content, but if you want to see it, you’d better bring your credit card along for the ride.

Now comes word that AOL may be about to do what the tiger couldn’t: change its stripes. The report is that AOL plans a free access Web portal along the same lines as Yahoo!. This change isn’t because it holds any particular concern for its millions of subscribers, but because subscriber-ship has been shrinking while advertising revenue has been growing. Finally, even the “wizards” at AOL have had their noses rubbed in the obvious long enough to make them think about doing a switch instead of a fight.

How much of AOL’s content it plans on making available is open to question. This is NOT going to be a weekend project, by any means. It’s had nearly 20 years of doing things one way. Redirecting that kind of momentum is like using a canoe to change the direction of a mile-long iceberg - it can be done, but you’d better have a mighty big paddle and don’t expect it to be done anytime soon.

[Read AOL ready to reinvent itself at CNET News]

[tags]aol[/tags]