Again, typing is tough so I'll let John McKinley do the talking, the entire thing is really worth a read:

The challenge with this approach is fourfold:

1. We lost the impact of some of the tips and techniques we had developed as a “veneer” player that maximized the revenue we could get from high-value searches - maybe that will be offset by the private label adwords, but maybe not…

2. Over time, the average consumer is going to develop more of a tendency to just go to google.com directly - I certainly have begun doing that. The value of AOL as part of the value chain in the eyes of the consumer is getting pretty minimal.

3. It under-leverages AOL’s ability to deliver unique rich content assets from within the TWX network.

4. It is, by its nature, defensive in nature - how could you possibly grow search share materially this way?