A writer in 1999 suggested that watching traditional media companies "fight the oncoming Internet boom" was like watching someone rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the deckchairs are being rearranged at an even faster pace today. Every Google announcement (or speculated announcement) causes acute consternation amongst fellow Search companies, WiFi organizations, media conglomerates and the advertising industry in general.

And if Google did not exist, Internet angst would still be so acute that the deckchair dance would still be at fever pitch. The future of music, television, radio, newspapers, movies, games and related industries is up in the air. Readers and content users are moving to the Net in droves so much so that media empires could be gutted overnight. Thus we have the traditional media companies making big bets once again on Internet properties that may or may not help replace "traditional revenue streams" and market share.

Who would have thought that Time Warner, all of the sudden, is placing big bets on its future around AOL? A perusal of news stories about Time Warner, until a few weeks ago, would find only remorse from Time Warner executives about the 2000 merger between TW and AOL. Now, however, Aol.com is being rolled out with a national ad campaign -- in fact Aol.com just might be the only way for Time Warner to preserve its media market share in coming decades. How ironic!