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Earthlink, (ELNK) also searching for its new identity, as AOL has been,  is struggling with the same problem as AOL has. The problem is that the great majority of their business is dialup Internet access.

Ispmix.com reports:

"Based in Atlanta, Georgia, EarthLink is a publicly traded ISP, which offers internet access to about 5.3 million households in the United States, giving it an overall market share of 5.8%."

They have attempted to remedy the problem by offering broadband, but haven't had much success in that area at all.

As a result they are attempting to enter into the small business arena with Small Office DSL Plus. How it works, according to TeleClick, is that it "uses a separate line for high-speed data transmission, making it a more versatile option for small business VoIP users. Hardware and installation are included with the service at no extra charge." The charge for the service will be $79.95 a month, with 6Mbps download speed and 768 upstream.

More important than this news is a lesson for online marketers. Think of Earthlink for a moment, and ask yourself a question: Who was their competitor during this time? Their answer would be AOL, and they would be wrong. The correct answer is broadband companies.

So they were furiously trying to gain market share against AOL, while the entire space they were in was disintegrating. They were no longer in the right market or offering the right product or service. Now they are struggling for their very survival.

The lesson? Make sure you're operating and working on the right thing. Don't get so consumed with your existing competitor, that you miss the entire shift of your industry into another stream. Dialup is dead. Earthlink may be too!