While it’s easy to see what AOL gets out of a potential merger with Yahoo!, it’s harder to see what Yahoo! gets.

Digital Cities/AOL’s own former managing editor, after all, recently called the challenge of reviving AOL — 20 million of whose users have fled since 2002 — akin to "making a Marc Jacobs purse out of a sow’s ear."

AOL seems sadly lost in the broadband age. The very thing that powered its initial rise to prominence — its $9.99 dial-up service — has now become a liability in negotiations with potential suitors. Its own search capabilities are touted as "enhanced by Google".

Were Yahoo! to combine with AOL, it may choose to grab AOL’s remaining 10 million members and its workable sub-brands,

and, taking its cue from Time Warner’s Life Magazine, allow AOL to gently fade into the history books.

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