COMMENT: According to the web chatter, both Microsoft and Google are in talks with AOL.

Looks like the major Internet players are getting closer to working out how they want to carve up the globe’s current and future online communities. There will no doubt be a  few properties that are fought over fiercely and others that wither on the vine.

AOL might fall into either or both of those camps.

The company is definitely in play. PC Week reportedly early in the week that AOL boss Jonathon Miller had to dodge questions from the press about rumours it was doing a deal (or an acquisition) with MSN.

Then three days later it turns out that MSN has done an instant messaging deal with Yahoo to allow interoperability between the two platforms – a smart VOIP play.

Meanwhile, this story says that when Google heard Microsoft was sniffing around it got together with cable company Comcast to look at taking a minority stake in AIL, which would presumably allow them to cut Microsoft out of the action.

The story says AOL is still talking to Microsoft despite already doing a deal with Yahoo!

Even though AOL has been progressively shedding subscribes it still commands a significant amount of pull in the US market. AOL opened its skirts earlier this year tearing down the barriers to its content rich portal which was previously reserved for its own subscribers and relying in part on Google advertising revenues.

This puts the AOL vs MSN + Yahoo! Instant messaging users at about equal in the all important US market. The next nearest IM platform is ICQ which is interoperable with AOL giving it a little more edge. Fourth is Skype in the US market but ICQ and Skype are so far behind the top three you have to doubt that any other platforms could possibly hope to gain enough momentum. Skype has grown at a phenomenal rate though so you would have to count it in as a contender.

Google Labs only launched its only GoogleTalk messaging service to market in August. Though it has a huge proportion of the internet search market, it is a long way behind in the IP communications space.

If Microsoft is in interoperability talks with AOL it could easily make search and search advertising part of the deal.

For its part Microsoft is a long way behind Google when it comes to search and advertising. It’s adCenter services is in early pilot stages and still looking for testers in the US.

It’s been a big week for Microsoft announcing it had kissed and made up with Real so that they could work together to battle Google/Sun and eBay/Skype. The enemy of my enemy is my friend the deal gives Microsoft a short cut to relevance in its battle against the iPod.