CBS MarketWatch has a couple articles about AOL's attitude toward search.

Would AOL drop Google?

AOL: 'Search is just a feature'

These articles make it seem that AOL is losing users becuase doing Google searches leads them to websites that aren't owned by Time Warner (AOL's parent company). They would do better to own an algorithmic search engine and keep them on AOL properties. I think that this argument is flawed. Even if AOL has its own search engine, unless it gives the best search results, people will go elsewhere. Regardless of who owns the search engine, it must give good results, and that may be non-AOL sites.