AOL has continued its acquisition spree, this time announcing that it has purchased startup website about.me for an undisclosed amount of money. The site, which began beta testing in September, has over 400,000 users and aims to tie the various social networking sites together to give people a single link into their life. It"s a simple concept, but the site goes a step further adding what they call a "personal analytics dashboard" to give details on your posts, tweets, page hits and the like.
The company was cofounded by Tony Conrad, the same person behind the blog search site Sphere. Conrad sold that company to AOL back in 2008, and it was recently folded into AOL News.
The site has only been open to the public for a few days, but CNN reports that the merger was signed before the launch. Cofounder Tony Conrad believes that AOL is on the forefront of the internet and will help to shape the evolution of the medium:
"AOL has an incredible vision for how content on the internet is changing – and how they will help shape its evolution. The combination of about.me and AOL is a natural fit as we think about what a more personalized web experience looks like for every individual online," said Tony Conrad, co-Founder of about.me.
AOL recently acquired TechCrunch and is currently investigating a possible Yahoo merger. The question still remains – are they reinventing themselves or are they desperately trying to remain relevant going into the next decade?