Yahoo! and AOL, You Kids Should Get Together

SAN FRANCISCO -- Wouldn't it be funny if one of 2009's bright spots in tech turns out to be America Online?

Lost in the mess on Wednesday that was Time Warner's(TWX Quote) fourth-quarter earnings (read: massive loss) report were at least a couple of signs that one of the Internet companies that started it all still offers value to somebody willing to work to unlock it.

That means you, Yahoo!(YHOO Quote).

As expected, AOL's advertising revenue dropped substantially in the fourth quarter, falling 18% after a 6% year-over-year decline in the third quarter.

That steepened decline isn't particularly extraordinary, given what we've seen from the bulk of media or ad-dependent companies this earnings season (when Disney's(DIS Quote) ESPN sees advertising sluggishness, it's bad out there).

At AOL, the slowdown cost the company's advertising chief Lynda Clarizio her job, which she had only had for about 11 months. (Her predecessor lasted only five months -- there's a whole Yankee-manager 1978-1991 thing going on there.)

Her replacement, former Yahoo! executive Greg Coleman, will be charged with reviving the company's display advertising business, which was widely seen as underperforming relative to the size of AOL's audience.

Another hopeful sign is that AOL seems to be closer to cutting costs in line with where the business now lies: Fourth-quarter operating income actually rose 6% to $405 million.

In a way, however, the most important metric was the tossed-off reiteration that AOL sites are still drawing about 110 million average monthly unique visitors, which is essentially unchanged from three months ago.