AOL Sold

A dinosaur may be dead. That would be the old war horse of internet servers, AOL. 'America On Line' (or for one time frustrated users who were regularly frustrated with the inability to get on line... 'America Off Line'). I'm not sure why Verizon is buying an outdated company with few assets, but it's probably unrelated to technology and more related to the subscriber base attached to AOL. AOL has bought quite a few much more successful companies than itself and  the assets of those companies far outweigh the liability of the AOL brand itself.

Anyway, here's how Lowell McAdam,  the CEO of Verizon, spins it. "AOL has once again become a digital trailblazer, and we are excited at the prospect of charting a new course together in the digitally connected world," McAdam stated. "AOL's advertising model aligns with this approach, and the advertising platform provides a key tool for us to develop future revenue streams."

Good luck to Verizon with AOL. In the early days of the internet, the 90's, AOL was the main "dial-up" server for Americans. It was a slow process, and not just because of the technology. AOL was a virtual monopoly and acted that way, often indifferent to customer service. I never had an AOL account (I swear it!) but I do remember the jokes about AOL's speed and about disconnection. In the late 1990's when AOL announced it would start charging a flat fee instead of the expense hourly rate for being on line,  people started logging on and staying on line for along time, thereby tying up the AOL lines and making it very hard for others to log in. AOL connections were flooded with users trying to get on, and many canceled their accounts due to constant.  That's when AOL customers starting fleeing to other internet providers.

But before burying AOL it would be fair to cite some of the innovations that AOL brought to the net.  The first is that AOL provided an affordable on line provider service, making the internet explosion possible. It was also the first internet provider to offer flat rate charges rather than hourly rates to use the net.  Also, AOL started the first chat platform and chat room. 'AIM' was a worldwide phenomenon at the time.

Like everything else, AOL had it's day and will be so re branded by Verizon that we will only have memories of  it. Good bye AOL. Thanks for the memories.