Mashable.com recently asked the question “Is Bebo a good buy for AOL?” This of course is referring to the recently announced $850 Million dollar purchase of the Bebo social network. My answer to this question is: Yes.

In AOL’s efforts to move away from their dial-up subscription service and continue to expand themselves in a “yahoo like” business model, AOL needs to continue to grow its online presence. Personally, of all the content-based search platforms (this excludes Google), I believe that AOL is providing the best content available and has done a great job of operating its site in a synchronized method of various portals.

The big thing that AOL lacks is a strong social presence and a useful integration of AIM and the web. AIM which is the US’s most popular web messenger service as well as the AOL-owned “ICQ” which still sees strong usage in foreign territories and gaming markets create the strongest messenger brand in the world, but lack web integration. The monetization of this service is limited by its lack of “pay per page view” ability that a popular website hosts. The service has yet to be able to effectively integrate with the web in a usable manner, even though the service has actively tried to develop its own property in AIM.com. If AOL can successfully integrated BEBO and AIM, they very well could develop the strongest social network on the internet.

The problem with this integration lays in the necessity for somewhat of a “paradigm shift” in how users interact with AIM. The company will be faced with an extremely difficult task of integrating the services, espeshally if they try and drive AIM users to a web-based BEBO. If AOL wants to see the greatest success with this integration, they must consider less of integrating AIM to BEBO and more of integrating BEBO with AIM. AIM users are used to interacting with the downloaded widget but are not accepting of the AIM service taking them offsite to find their needs. AIM should consider developing the BEBO service within the AIM platform to work hand and hand with a web-based BEBO. This way users can interact with their BEBO profile from within the AIM service or from the web; where ever the user deems fit.

Another issue AOL faces is the BEBO platform itself. BEBO’s platform is far less user friendly than all other competitors in the United States. The profile integration is much more complex and not as easy to figure out for a normal user. AOL will need to instigate a serious over hall of the BEBO platform if they intend for it to grow far beyond its current size. The website needs some serious restructuring and updating of its content discovery tools. Integrating BEBOs actual content with the AOL website service may not be a bad idea, as AOL has become masters of the content delivery craft.

I have always felt that the next wave of “social networking” would come from a service like AIM. With it’s built in user base, lack of effective competition and users who just have no need to use another service, it poses the biggest threat to mere web-based social networks. AIM also has the luxury of a “lock in model”. Screen names, much like phone numbers, are difficult to change as users become accustomed to messaging a user at their respective screen name. If AOL and leverage this into a social platform and do a good job at delivering excellent content in an effective manner, they could potentially have a solid lock in to users online experience.