Huffpost and AOL: 1+1=11??

The world famous online newspaper, the Huffington Post, has merged with AOL. Okay, so AOL has swallowed it up. What does this say to the online world, to bloggers and to social media users worldwide?

AOL has done this before and so have other big players in the market. The idea of making a small, but exciting, player into part of a global conglomerate is not new but its success is patchy. Some have failed spectacularly and some have worked. All start ups dream of this. The Associated Content start up in 2005 found themselves part of Yahoo in November 2010. Quite a journey from article writing to becoming the Yahoo Contributor Network.

The Huffington Post came into being in May 2005 and has grown into a highly reputable, big coverage online newspaper and social media resource. The focus is to the American market and success called in the last few days in the guise of none other than AOL. The 250 million strong player with a trusting and loyal following would seem to be the ideal home for the Huffpost and Arianna Huffington, the co-founder, calls it a "merger of visions".

If you are a blogger with 100 followers, or a bigger fish in a small, specialist pond then keep going. Build your followers, keep producing content and one day AOL or Yahoo or Google may come knocking. One plus one may make eleven for you too!!