The price of free stuff

It’s been a busy news week for AOL.
USA Today: AOL offering 5 gigabytes of free storage

The announcement Thursday of 5 gigabytes of free storage, which AOL says is good for some 1,250 songs or 2,000 photos, represents AOL’s latest effort to draw visitors to its ad-supported sites, now that it wants to be less reliant on revenues from its Internet access business.

It’s part of the huge shift AOL announced Wednesday to give away e-mail accounts and software previously reserved for paying customers, a move likely to accelerate a decline in access subscriptions but boost advertising dollars.

Oh yeah,

The company said Thursday it expects to drop as many as 5,000 employees as it seeks more than $1 billion in savings from marketing, network and other costs.

Remember, there is usually a trade off for anything you use for free.

• Loss off privacy (e.g. Google)
• Lost jobs (e.g. AOL)
• Loss of ownership/usage rights (e.g. YouTube)

Be aware. Question everything. Maintain control. Stay safe.
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional who is concerned about how companies handle personally identifiable information. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.