"AOL looking forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Magnify.net"

As some of you know, there was a recent article in Silicon Alley Insider that suggested that AOL was somehow shutting down 50 or more of its projects.  Well, that is certainly not a good thing -- especially when you read that you are one of them. Yikes!  How can AOL be 'shutting down Magnify.net' when they don't own us? Heck, we don't even have a deal with them.

Well, the good folks at SAI were quick to clarify things -- and posted a correction.

And folks at AOL jumped on the phone and helped us clear up what really happened.  So,  here's what our friend Fred McIntyre (SVP AOL Video) had to say about AOL, Magnify, and our relationship going forward.

“Magnify.net currently leverages services and APIs that AOL provides through UserPlane and Truveo.  AOL is pleased to provide these services to Magnify.net, and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Magnify.net."

Here's Fred's background info on what happened and how we got on the "axe" list:

"In 2007, AOL budgeted development cycles to do some custom AOL Video API development to enable the distribution of videos from AOL Video’s library on Magnify.net’s platform.  As part of the process of scoping this work, a decision was made to use Truveo’s Video Search APIs, which provide a comprehensive index of all web video.  Based on this decision in Q3-07, AOL Video made the responsible decision to curtail investment in custom API development, since the work was not needed.”

Ah, nice.  A year old memo, a change in strategy for US (we like using Trueveo for some of our search pipelines, it works and its solid), and we like the guys at AOL.  So, heart attack averted, we're growing and building great new features and moving forward.  Sorry for the fire drill folks, moving on!