Consumers’ growing love affair with watching video on smartphones and tablets is at the heart of Verizon’s (VZ) $4.4 billion acquisition of AOL (AOL).

That’s because AOL, even though it remains a top Web destination, developed online advertising technology Verizon can use across mobile and broadband services to compete with Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other Silicon Valley companies that are further ahead in the business.

“This is really about AOL’s advertising platform,” says Roger Entner, an