• Forbes.com, Friday, April 20, 2007 10:30 AM

What does "Web portal" mean to you? It certainly means different things to different Web giants. Yahoo markets itself as a destination for everyone else's content, while Google wants to direct people to everyone else's content. AOL believes it's a destination for original content and MSN (we think) falls somewhere in the middle.

On Tuesday, AOL made a "glitzy pitch" to advertisers for more of their dollars (what does "upfront" meant to you?). The Time Warner company peddled what it calls "the expensive stuff." While the rest of the Web world focuses on user-generated content like video and social networking, AOL is producing what looks like television. If that strategy fails, AOL is in trouble.

The Time Warner unit started the trend last year by hiring reality TV king Mark Burnett to create a Web series called "Gold Rush,""Amazing Race"­-type treasure hunt. By Web standards it was a success, attracting an audience of 11 million, who averaged 15 minutes each according to the company. "Gold Rush" sold sponsorships to five national brand marketers, and will be back in the fall. So what's new for next season?

Another four, large-scale projects from big-name producers Dreamworks Animation, Telepictures, and reality giant Endemol USA. An expensive gamble to be sure, but agency execs say it's a welcome direction--not to mention a non-controversial one. There's plenty of marketing dollars for clean, quality video content--as long as it draws a big audience.

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