AOL to put Net terminals into cinemas, shops

AOL today took a stake in Atlanta, Georgia-based Radiant Systems, a developer of point-of-sale devices. The size of AOL's investment wasn't revealed, but the company did say it will be working with Radiant on a series of Net access systems for retail environments. It described the deal as a "multi-year agreement". It's not hard to understand AOL's interest. AOL has long touted its 'AOL Anywhere' strategy, and the Radiant deal makes it possible. Radiant provides it with the expertise to build kiosks to promote its online content in a wide range of locations. Think traffic news systems in garage forecourts, restaurant guides and movie times systems in town centres. Think 'AOL absolutely everywhere'. Whether AOL will try and charge users 25c (or whatever) a pop to access each unit, or will make its money through advertising remains to be seen -- probably both, knowing AOL. ® Daily Net finance news from The Register