February 9th, 2011

The Huffington Post joins Tech Crunch as one of the recent acquisitions by internet giant AOL.  Trying to beef up content and unique editorial views, AOL snatched up Arianna Huffington’s huge online empire.  While there are many readers of HuffPo who feel a bit jilted – after all, the publication has up to this point thrived on pretty unique content with a very laid-back editorial feel.  It’s far from old-media, yet it’s not like the SEO-laden junk found on other large content providers.

Competition for traffic and ad revenue is heating up with big players like Yahoo and AOL.  Yahoo purchased content farm Associated Content last year, and with AOL’s recent moves, it seems like the Internet and Websites are going through a big consolidation phase.

Doesn’t surprise me at all.  Big businesses have been doing it for years.  They expand during times of thriving economic conditions and contract during hard times.  Eventually, the  noose will loosen and there will be a slew of new sites pop up.  Then, when the economic cycle returns back to tough times, once again there will be a purchasing frenzy undertaken by those