If it ain't broke, don't fix it. In contrast to AOL's troubled dial-up internet access business, the portal's relationship with Google is working just fine. Google provides the technology for AOL users to search the internet. The two companies then share the advertising revenues, with the split heavily skewed towards AOL.

Switching to Microsoft would have been risky for AOL. Microsoft has yet to prove that its new advertising network will be as effective as Google's. An AOL/Microsoft tie-up would also have threatened Google. Google would have lost a big customer - AOL accounts for about 10 per cent of its gross revenues - and seen Microsoft kick-start its search business.