AOL can now turn old strategy on its head: Eric Auchard

-- Eric Auchard is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own --

By Eric Auchard

LONDON (Reuters) - AOL's mega-merger with Time Warner -- which is finally being unwound -- made the headlines both as the defining deal of the dot-com bubble and as a textbook case of a failed integration.

The debacle has kept a lot of media writers employed this decade, kicking Time Warner Inc for its missteps. But the planned spinoff of the one-time Internet leader could finally free AOL to pursue its destiny as a far smaller but potentially disruptive Web company.

It won't be an easy road: Ask many Internet users when they last used AOL, and they'll tell you it was "years ago." The company is better known for its messy, protracted divorce more than what it actually does for business. But AOL is not the same company it was when the Time Warner merger was consummated.

Far from the online portal business it once was, AOL now operates a highly distributed collection of Web media sites and online advertising networks.

Instead of trying to bring users to a central site and keep them there as long as possible, AOL is creating a network of websites aimed at target audiences, including movie-lovers, gadget freaks, women, men, celebrities, in many different languages or cultures.

These sites are funded by advertising which AOL targets those audiences using clever search technology.

Carried to its logical extent, AOL could create millions of personalized web sites on the fly by pulling together relevant tidbits of content based on a user's prior web usage habits and expressed interests.