AOL plans WoW social network at wow.com
by Eric Vice 
Oct 2nd 2007 at 11:00AM
Those of us who have ever tried to buy a domain know what I'm about to talk about. All those really great, short, three-to-five letter domain names are taken. You may think you've thought of something nobody else would use, but as soon as you run to your web host of choice and type it into the search box your dreams are shattered as you discover it's already registered to someone else.Over the course of it's many corporate acquisitions over the years, AOL has obviously picked up the ownership of a premium domain name or two. One of them -- wow.com -- was acquired when they took ownership of the remaining assets of Compuserve many years ago. In its article posted this morning, Techcrunch.com reveals that AOL has decided to pull wow.com out of mothballs and use it as a social networking site for World of Warcraft players.
I guess this is one instance of patience paying off. They've owned this domain for what appears to be a very long time, and now they've found a great use for it. All I know is that if America Online has decided to take this on, they will do a fantastic job. I'm looking forward to seeing how they execute this plan.
Oh. And I should probably take a moment to "do the voice" of that guy who reads the fine print really fast at the end of the car commercials and say "WoW Insider is a part of the Weblogs Inc. blogging network which is owned by America Online."
Filed under: Odds and ends, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ickibod Oct 2nd 2007 11:07AM
Good article, but please, for the love of god, stop using "it's" when you're talking about a possessive and should be using "its" instead.
That's all.
rekkidnerd Oct 2nd 2007 11:18AM
Okay so I usually don't troll but...
"All I know is that if America Online has decided to take this on, they will do a fantastic job"
huh? why? Cause their portal is so good? Cause their search is so good? Cause spam filters are so good?
if anything I'm thinking ohhh great someone else trying to edge in on Myspace, Facebook, Linkedin domain but this time just focused on WoW players eeeek... but i'm more jaded i guess.
AOL doesn't have one of those brands you automatically go "they're awesome what are they going to do next!" they're not Microsoft Amazon, Google or Starbucks. (Evil? Maybe. Well run? definitely)
They've pretty much been in decline since dial-up started to become obsolesced.
robotrock Oct 2nd 2007 11:18AM
Technically, the company that owns you is named AOL, LLC. They changed it from America Online over a year ago.
Sylythn Oct 2nd 2007 11:21AM
"WoW Insider is a part of the Weblogs Inc. blogging network which is owned by America Online."
aha! now "I know is that if America Online has decided to take this on, they will do a fantastic job." makes sense.
Coasters, abysmal helplines, no way to quit, bloated, only good at buying out others...these are things I attribute to AOL. "Fantastic job" and "AOL" never juxtaposed themselves in my mind - and I doubt they ever will.
MIrina Oct 2nd 2007 11:25AM
With #3. AOL has been renamed to AOL, LLC :) It didn't appear that they had a large contingent of WoW players when I worked for them about 2.5 years ago. I can think of 1 person who played (rumor is we had a couple others). But I didn't get into WoW until after I left there. I can see it now...pop-up hell, but the ability to have a ____@wow.com email address with guild AIM chat! .>
Dave Oct 2nd 2007 11:28AM
Yeah, they'll do a great job. Just like they did a 'great job' of the time warner merger.
I imagine that Blizzard might claim AOL is squatting on the domain name if they use it specifically as a warcraft themed site.
FRANKIEJ Oct 2nd 2007 11:33AM
[opinion] this may be just me, but anything AOL touches turns into cow pie.. err Tauren pie. But I guess if they own Webblogs and manage to keep these blogs successful, then it might just have a chance.
/pray
[/opinion]
Brasson Oct 2nd 2007 11:38AM
It's AOL. The company that mailed me six CDs a month for four years. If I ever hit wow.com, it's because I mistyped wowinsider, or wowhead, or wowarmory, or wow...
Boy, there are a lot of wowsites.
Makros Oct 2nd 2007 11:49AM
@2
Do you (or anyone else for that matter) really go "they're awesome what are they going to do next!" about Microsoft?! The Zune was awesome! I can't wait for Microsoft's next super paper-weight! And Vista, oh man, I love operating systems that don't work with anything!
Yeah yeah... I may be flaming or trolling, but I'm too old to know what that means =P
Melenor Oct 2nd 2007 12:02PM
@1: Journalists, especially those of the online variety, are a dime a dozen. If you come expecting grammar, you will be disappointed... EVERY TIME.
ace danger Oct 2nd 2007 12:13PM
so should sites like rupture.com be worried?
Bylebog Oct 2nd 2007 12:33PM
Actually, I think a better use would be put use it for a Guildportal copy. There's plenty of good social networking sites, that space is pretty well filled imo. But, what I don't see is a good, easy to use guild website hosting option. Guildportal is nice, but they're about all there is. So, why not try to move into that space, rather than being one of 20 or 30 "like myspace, but niche" sites.
Baluki Oct 2nd 2007 12:41PM
There are already several WoW-exclusive social networking sites out there, as well as some WoW-oriented apps for the regular SN sites (I recommend that everyone check out "I Play WoW" for Facebook). Those are already going about as strongly as they're going to.
A "me too" offering by one of the internet's megacorporations isn't going to go very far. In fact, just having the AOL brand on it repels a lot of people.
And also, we don't need a social networking site for WoW. WoW IS social networking. When I want to talk to my guildies, I play the game, or go to my guild forums, or realm forums.
Tridus Oct 2nd 2007 12:43PM
Yeah, AOL has done a bang up job with Netscape.com over the years!
There's a reason why Time Warner took back over and now wants to divest itself of this boat anchor.
Wysticus Oct 2nd 2007 1:01PM
Maybe I'm being harsh and a bit overcritical, but I really think that this story could have been written in such a way that it was informative and didn't sound like Eric Vice is simply a shill for AOL. Really, I want to know how this got past the editors without them saying, "You know Eric, just because your paychecks say AOL, LLC in the top left corner doesn't mean you're their PR guy."
Seriously man, at least pretend to some journalistic integrity.
robotrock Oct 2nd 2007 1:11PM
#15.
If anything, the author of this post is going against AOL communication policy by writing about a rumor....nothing's official.
If true, I find it a bit curious that AOL waited so long to ride the WoW bandwagon. It seems WoW's time in the spotlight has crested and probably won't last much longer than a year or two....developing a social community around that doesn't seem like a sound financial decision to me.
They probably would have made more money just using the page as an adfarm.
Coherent Oct 2nd 2007 1:38PM
/surprised voice
I did not even know that WoWinsider was owned by AOL. So I guess full disclosure is a good thing, quite useful.
Paw Oct 2nd 2007 2:21PM
AOL is a dinosaur. My wife uses it on her computer and is forever bugging me to fix some problem with AOL's inability to play nicely with her computer. One of my favorites is storing anything she downloads in a subdirectory miles deep into the Windows AOL architecture, unreachable from outside the program to all but a few intrepid explorers. "I don't know where that photo I just downloaded went to." "Get rid of that crappy AOL and you will."
Oh...and yay WoW!
Tekkub Oct 2nd 2007 4:33PM
People still use AOL?
Christopher Grant Oct 2nd 2007 4:39PM
Everyone here realizes that AOL owns this very site, correct? Yeah, we can laugh at AOL's gaffes all day (it's fun for the whole family!) but don't assume it's (it is) an entire corporation full of people who love mailing out trial CDs to middle America.