Today, Toronto-based AOL Canada has thrown its hat into the portal ring with the launch of AOL.ca, a high-speed public Web portal that aggregates content from across all Time Warner properties including CNN, Mapquest.com and Netscape.ca among others – for free. The new portal is aimed specifically at broadband-minded Canadians with content offered in an interactive format including live streaming and on-demand service. AOL.ca boasts a video search product featuring an comprehensive online video index of more than 1.5 million titles focusing on music, news, sports and entertainment on demand.
‘This is a real change for AOL Canada and for AOL in general,’ says Jonathan Lister, VP, audience division. ‘[We’re doing this because] daytime is prime time. With this portal designed for broadband users, it allows advertisers to go after its audience. They hit them during the day while they’re at their computers.’ Lister goes on to cite the example of the quick service restaurants’ inability to find their audience in the daylight hours. ‘With AOL.ca, (the advertisers) can target them at work, just before lunch.’ The interactive services company has also just now made all AOL content searchable on Google. ‘In the past, if you used Google, AOL wouldn’t index. Not anymore,’ says Lister.
