MSNBC is reporting that AOL is laying off 5,000. Ouch. But we saw this coming, didn’t we?

One thing I watch closely is how people use computers. When I visited Montana and went into everyday people’s homes and saw that they were on broadband and used Google, that told me that things had totally changed. Not to mention the Wifi signs in restaurants in Montana. I grew used to them in Silicon Valley, but when things get outside the valley’s bubble then you know things have really changed.

On Friday evening or Saturday morning I expect we’ll be with the hoards of tourists looking at Old Faithful.

The fact that I’m looking at a Yahoo property instead of an AOL one tells you something.

I’m gonna go up to tourists with my videocamera and ask them about photo sites they use and see what I learn.

Old Faithful is the one place in the USA that I’ve been where you’ll see, in the parking lot, license plates from every state in the nation (no one lives there, it’s a totally tourist population).

Sorry to the AOL’ers who now have to find work. If they lived in Silicon Valley they’d be sucked into the infrastructure here cause lots of companies are hiring, but I imagine most of the AOL workers are tech support types and they won’t find lots of jobs available, I’m guessing.