Didn’t see it coming .. really ?
While I am a fan of Microsoft (as I remember how hard it was to do things BEFORE they got on the scene) … but Bill Gates is simply to dominant a player to sit on the sidelines in any joint venture.
Basically, it seems that there was no way that Google and Microsoft could really worth together in harmony … tHe Google guys would still want to run things their way and Microsoft would want some inmfluence.
Google don’t fear AOL at all – and believe that they’ll be left to run things as they see fit – as long as they’re returning a profit.