AOL TotalTalk hacked?

Aswath points out that AOL’s TotalTalk site reports simply:

We are very sorry to inform you AOL� Enhanced Services (“AOL ES”) has decided to discontinue offering the TotalTalk� service. For this reason, the TotalTalk service will be terminated on or about November 30, 2006.

Indeed, I went to the site, and as of Tue Aug 29 23:02:38 PDT 2006 that content is all you get at the site.

Good catch, Aswath. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

UPDATE: Aswath nailed it. This has now been officially confirmed – AOL will discontinue its TotalTalk Internet-phone service. Andy concludes that it is a wise decision by AOL, to get out of the Vonage-like VoIP business and move toward the Skype-like VoIP business with their AIM PhoneLine product. Rich Tehrani suggests that Vonage has “raised the bar” in terms of marketing costs. He notes that “If you have a big enough wallet you can add customers briskly” but then adds “The question, is does it make sense to do this at a loss like Vonage is doing?”