Jonathan Miller (of AOL) is on stage at Stanford's AlwaysOn conference for the first time publicly showing AOL 9.0's roll-your-own personal portal for consumers. ISPs must respond in kind. The days of portals just for businesses have ended. As well as AOL Journals, a blogging service.

AOL will introduce publish-and-subscribe calendars later this year, Miller says. Will they use interoperable Internet calendaring standards, or will AOL users be locked in AOL's calendaring trunk?

Bob Frankston asks what business AOL is in, and whether that's akin to the old monopolistic phone company. With no mention this morning of Internet standards in the areas of presence, video or calendaring, I'm guessing Frankston's mention of the old Ma Bell makes sense. Fortunately, the Internet can route around non-standard presence, video and calendaring. [Scott Mace's Radio Weblog]

These comments by Scott Mace from the Always On conference mean I can finally show some of the work we did for AOL over two years ago.  It seems they're doing a lot of what we told them to do.  I just love the idea of 30M end-users creating their own 'personal portals'.  This is great news!

I just LOVE the idea of AOL opffering personal portals! [Marc's Voice]

US Trendsetters Are Online [eMarketer]

According to a recent RoperASW/Washingtonpost.com report, 82% of those people in the US who influence the opinions and purchases of others go online multiple times each day. Plus, over 80% conduct product research online.

With so many influential consumers in the US going online, can you afford not to target these people? eMarketer estimates there will be 162 million people online by the end of this year. For more on how to address Internet users in the US through effective online advertising campaigns, read eMarketer's Online Advertising Essentials report.

Bloggers and the core readers of blogs are, by their nature, trendsetters and influencers. Businesses that depend on a flow of timely and critical information to and _from_ their customers and prospects need to explore how blogging can benefit their businesses.

John Lawlor - business blogging evangelist 2003-07-16