So I decided to look at the three players and see what's going on there. I had a few thoughts on each.

Yahoo!: The clear winner.

It's been a year since I really took the chance to look at Yahoo! and I was simply amazed with their offering. The breadth of the news content they offer is astounding; the features are endless. It's amazing that you can even use their mail via POP software. The messenger software is also amazing. It's very customizable. The voice chat is clear and advanced. And for a web search partner, can you do better than Google?

My Yahoo! continues to improve (I have a 6 page private portal). You can even customize the fonts now.

And not to mention the Yahoo! by phone. I can't believe how well it works and it's free. (For now I guess, but AOL charges $10 bucks a month.) You could just use Yahoo! and have all your needs satisfied.

The only drawback is their page layouts could be a little more appealing. It still looks a bit weak. I hope they continue to improve this area. Not only do they lose points from a visual standpoint, but it detracts from the cohesiveness of the service as a whole. I think they could really capitalize on Yahoo! as an online service, instead of simply a portal or search engine.

The only thing they need now to really clock to the top is for AOL to open IM standards to everyone. I think this will happen in 2001. I have a feeling AOL will let this go to complete the Time Warner merger. If this happens Yahoo! will be the place to be.

AOL: Steadily improving, but still a step behind Yahoo!

Version 6 is a big improvement and they do a great job with design, but in the features department, they still lag behind. The large customer base seems to be satisfied, so what the heck. In fact, to get so many people to pay so much to subscribe to an inferior product seems like an accomplishment in itself. Time Warner has been making impatient noises about getting access to AOL's mind-boggling marketing capability once the merger is completed, and they aren't blowing smoke. A word to the wise though. In his book, Permission Marketing, Seth Godin warned AOL some time ago about "burning" the permission their members have granted to market directly to them. In other words, users are going to need to be treated with a bit more respect and not be bombarded with irrelevant offers. I'll tell you this much: Yahoo! users wouldn't put up with it. Either that, or they may have to put up with more of it in the future. I'm not sure which.

I tried so hard to give AOL a chance this year. Version 2 of their calendar looked very good. It wasn't totally HTML so it loaded quick and you could use it offline. I even moved my large address book to version 6 and found it useful as well.

But then I got really annoyed.

First of all, no week view on the calendar! I said, What no week view?!?! I called AOL and they told me there was not much demand for a week view. I was very shocked. This is not a "feature," it's a requirement in my book.

Also, they promised a way to transfer data from the calendar and address book to a PDA or Outlook. They never completed this. So, you're stuck!

What's interesting is that AOL is now offering PDA support, but this DOES NOT include address book or calendar usage, only IM. This is completely ridiculous. How can they expect people to make use of their service in this way while being so inable to offer basic features. (Example: Version 6 came out, they said it offered "advanced features" such as e-mail sorting. I said, "WHAT? E-Mail sorting is an ADVANCED feature?" Weird.)

And then I beta tested the new AOL by phone which is exactly like Yahoo! by phone (Yahoo! has more features.) and was pleased with the AOL effort, until they said it would be 10 bucks a month to use the feature. This is really bad. Yahoo!'s is for free!

Also, I missed using Outlook Express for e-mail. And yes...Yahoo! still offers free POP support.

It is painful, but I am now switching (by hand) all my calendar and address book files back to Yahoo!. It's taking a long time, but at least when it's done Yahoo! offers true sync for PDA's. Even Excite does that.

I really, really tried to give AOL a chance. I used it for a full year, but they really make it hard to use their services from a practical standpoint.

If you compare it feature by feature:

• Mail: Yahoo! wins
• Calendar: Yahoo! wins (although AOL's looked a little better)
• PDA support: Yahoo! wins
• My Photos: Yahoo! wins
• Address book: Yahoo! wins
• News Customization: Yahoo! wins by a mile
• Briefcase: Yahoo! wins (AOL's is a 1994 style)
• Yahoo Companion!: Awesome service
• By Phone: Yahoo! Wins
• ...and many others.

One area Yahoo! loses for now is instant messaging. It still a little weak in comparison to AOL IM (Both AOL service and AIM) and not accessing most people on AOL is a drawback. However, once AOL opens up IM standards to everyone, that will all change and Yahoo! will advance their messenger and it will come of age. I think this will happen this year.

MSN: Bad attitude; thumbs down.

I'm sorry, but I can't find any advantage to the new MSN Explorer browser. What a waste. They're trying to be AOL, but only AOL can be AOL. Yahoo! did a super job of developing an online service that runs on widely embraced Internet standards like HTML, and MSN should have gone this route.

Not only did they tick off the advanced users, but the basic users will stick with AOL, thank you very much.

MSN has the bucks and the great marketing, but really lags behind as a portal.

I will concede that Hotmail, the customized news on the regular MSN portal, and the instant messaging and so on are strong product offerings that work well. We wouldn't expect anything less from such a mighty software company. But with a big new marketing push for MSN which pits them against AOL, they may be barking up the wrong tree. The MSN Explorer browser is more of the "same old Microsoft" - an attempt to lock users into Microsoft's proprietary systems. Hey, even Windows has come under siege from time to time, and in the world of operating systems, many users never really felt they had a choice. You have to wonder if the market for online services can embrace this approach given the number of options available.

Keep in mind, in any case, that Microsoft will thrive in the emerging Internet space even if its repeated experiments with MSN flop. It holds stakes in access providers (cable companies like Canada's Rogers Communications), for one thing. Its operating system is still a leader, and as I mentioned above, most of us now actually like using Microsoft's Outlook Express for email and Internet Explorer for browsing. Microsoft is also still betting on things like Web TV and set-top boxes, and though you don't hear people talking about it on street corners, one of these days, media convergence may really benefit giants like Microsoft (and of course AOL Time Warner).

Conclusion: An Imperfect World

Given that we live in an imperfect world, maybe it isn't surprising that the gateway to imperfection should be AOL. Like MSN Explorer, AOL locks people into a proprietary system - much more so than Yahoo! The latest trick seems to be shutting down many of the free personalized information services (My AOL) that were available to non-subscribers through the AOL.com site.

In a perfect world, users of mighty AOL would become disillusioned with the service as they have been with various Microsoft offerings over the years. But it isn't a perfect world, and as long as it isn't seriously broken, most AOL users will find it too much trouble to switch.

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about the arrogance of AOL and MSN is that it will give Yahoo! more latitude as it moves to make more of its services "subscription based." This will help Yahoo! do better from a business standpoint, given that today, 90% of its revenues are derived from a now very soft Internet advertising market. However, let's hope they remember what got them there. Simply put, giving users what they need and want, and working steadily on product improvement.

Ted Roberts is a marketing analyst based in Dayton, Ohio.