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AOL
Type Subsidiary of Time Warner
Founded 1983 (as CVC)
Headquarters Dulles, Virginia, United States
Key people Randy Falco, Ted Leonsis, Ronald Grant
Industry Internet & Communications
Products Internet service
Employees 16,000[1]
Website AOL
AOL LLC. (formerly TWC.) is an American global Internet services and media
company operated by Time Warner.
AOL is based in Richmond, Virginia. With regional branches around the world,
the former American "goliath among Internet service providers"[2] once had
more than 30 million subscribers[2] on several continents. In January 2000,
AOL and Time Warner announced plans to merge. The terms of the deal
negotiated called for AOL shareholders to own 55% of the new, combined
company. The deal closed on January 11, 2001 after receiving regulatory
approval from the FTC, the FCC and the European Union.
America Online, Inc., as the company was then called, was led by executives
from both AOL and Time Warner. Gerald Levin, who had served as CEO of Time
Warner, was CEO of the new company. Steve Case served as Chairman, J.
Michael Kelly (from AOL) was the Chief Financial Officer, Robert W. Pittman
(from AOL) and Dick Parsons (from Time Warner) served as Co-Chief Operating
Officers. The total value of AOL stock subsequently plummeted from about
$226 billion to about $20 billion.[3]Similarly, its customer base has
decreased to 13 million subscribers as of December 2006, just narrowly ahead
of Comcast and AT&T Yahoo.
AOL is a company in transition, made evident by discussions of buy-outs and
joint ventures during a period of dramatic decline in AOL's subscriber
base.[2] News reports in late 2005 identified companies such as Yahoo!,
Microsoft, and Google as candidates for turning AOL into a joint venture;[4]
those plans were apparently abandoned when it was revealed on December 20,
2005 that Google would purchase a 5% share of AOL for $1 billion.
AOL is also one of the worst voted internet suppliers in a poll by BBC
Watchdog. On March 31, 1997, the short lived eWorld was purchased by AOL,
forcing the 115,000 users to subscribe to AOL. The ISP side of AOL UK was
bought by The Carphone Warehouse in October 2006 to take advantage of their
100,000 LLU's, which makes The Carphone Warehouse the biggest LLU provider
in the UK, enabling them to offer broadband at no charge to 90% of their
TalkTalk Talk3 customers.[5]
History
AOL release timeline
1989 AOL for Macintosh gains popularity as a Mac BBS
1991 AOL for DOS launched
January 1993 AOL 1.0 for Windows 3.1 launched, AOL 2.0 for Macintosh
launched
? 1994 AOL 1.5 for Windows 3.1 launched
August 1994 AOL 2.0 for Windows 3.1 launched
June 1995 AOL 2.5 for Windows 3.1 launched
? 1995 AOL 3.0 for Windows 3.1 launched
? 1996 AOL 3.0 for 95 launched
July 1998 / June 1999 AOL 4.0 (Casablanca) and Refresh 2 launched
September 1999 AOL 5.0 (Kilimanjaro) launched
June 2000 AOL 5.0 for 9x/NT/2K (Niagara) launched
October and December 2000 AOL 6.0 (K2 - Karakorum) and Refresh launched
September 2001 AOL 6.0.2 for XP launched
October and December 2001, May and July 2002 AOL 7.0 (Taz) and Refresh 1,
Refresh 2, and Refresh 2 Plus launched
October 2002 AOL 8.0 (Spacely) launched
April 2003 AOL 8.0 Plus (Elroy) launched
August and September 2003 AOL 9.0 Optimized (Bunker Hill / Blue Hawaii) and
Refresh launched
May 2004 AOL 9.0 Optimized SE/LE (Thailand / Tahiti) launched
November 2004, July 2005 AOL 9.0 Security Edition SE/LE (Strauss) and
Refresh launched
August 2005 to March 2006 AOL Suite Beta launched (canceled)
September 2006, March 2007 AOL OpenRide (Streamliner) launched
November 2006, April 2007 AOL 9.0 VR (Originally AOL 9.5) and Refresh
launched(AOL 9.0 for Microsoft Windows Vista but also works with Microsoft
Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP)
AOL began as a short-lived venture called Quantum Computer Services (or
QCS), founded by William von Meister. Its sole product was an online service
called Gameline for the Atari 2600 video game console after von Meister's
idea of buying music on demand was rejected by Warner Brothers. (Klein,
2003) Subscribers bought a modem from the company for $49.95 and paid a
one-time $15 setup fee. Gameline permitted subscribers to temporarily
download games and keep track of high scores, at a cost of approximately $1
per hour.
In 1983, the company nearly went bankrupt, and an investor in Control Video,
Frank Caufield, had a friend of his, Jim Kimsey, brought in as a
manufacturing consultant. That same year, Steve Case joined the company as a
full-time marketing employee upon the joint recommendations of von Meister
and Kimsey. Kimsey went on to become the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of
the newly renamed Quantum Computer Services in 1985, after von Meister was
quietly dropped from the company.
Case himself rose quickly through the ranks; Kimsey promoted him to
vice-president of marketing not long after becoming CEO, and later promoted
him further to executive vice-president in 1987. Kimsey soon began to groom
Case to ascend to the rank of CEO, which he did when Kimsey retired in 1991.
Kimsey changed the company's strategy, and in 1985 launched a sort of
mega-BBS for Commodore 64 and 128 computers, originally called Quantum Link
("Q-Link" for short). The Quantum Link software was licensed from PlayNet,
Inc. In May 1988, Quantum and Apple launched AppleLink Personal Edition for
Apple II and Macintosh computers. After the two companies parted ways in
October 1989, Quantum changed the service's name to America Online.[6][7] In
August 1988, Quantum launched PC Link, a service for IBM-compatible PCs
developed in a joint venture with the Tandy Corporation.
Logo was used in Europe between 2005-2006. Now most European AOL Websites
use the same logo as AOL USA and AOL Canada.
Logo was used in Europe between 2005-2006. Now most European AOL Websites
use the same logo as AOL USA and AOL Canada.
From the beginning, AOL included online games in its mix of products; many
classic and casual games were included in the original PlayNet software
system. In the early years of AOL the company introduced many additional
innovative online interactive titles and games, including:
* Graphical chat environments Habitat (1986-1988) and Club Caribe (1988)
from LucasArts.
* The first online interactive fiction series QuantumLink Serial by Tracy
Reed (1988).
* Quantum Space, the first fully automated Play by email game (1989-1991).
* The original Dungeons & Dragons title Neverwinter Nights from Stormfront
Studios (1991-1997), the first Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing
Game (MMORPG) to depict the adventure with graphics instead of text (1991).
* The first chat room-based text role-playing game Black Bayou (1996-2004),
a horror role-playing game from Hecklers Online and ANTAGONIST, Inc..
In February 1991 AOL for DOS was launched using a GeoWorks interface
followed a year later by AOL for Windows. In October 1991, Quantum changed
its name to America Online. These changes coincided with growth in pay-based
BBS services, like Prodigy, CompuServe, and GEnie. AOL discontinued Q-Link
and PC Link in the fall of 1994.
Massive growth
Case positioned AOL as the online service for people unfamiliar with
computers, in particular contrast to CompuServe, which had long served the
technical community. The PlayNet system that AOL licensed was the first
online service to require use of proprietary software, rather than a
standard terminal program; as a result it was able to offer a graphical user
interface (GUI) instead of command lines, and was well ahead of the
competition in emphasizing communication among members as a feature.
In particular was the Chat Room concept from PlayNet, as opposed to the
previous paradigm of CB-style channels. Chat Rooms allowed a large group of
people with similar interests to convene and hold conversations in real
time, including:
* Private rooms - created by any user. Hold up to 27 people.
* Conference rooms - created with permission of AOL. Hold up to 48 people
and often moderated.
* Auditoriums - created with permission of AOL. Consisted of a stage and an
unlimited number of rows. What happened on the stage was viewable by
everybody in the auditorium but what happened within individual rows, of up
to 27 people, was viewable only by the people within those rows.
There were also text games played in the chat rooms, known as AOL chatroom
games.In March 1994, AOL added access to USENET to the features it offered.
AOL quickly surpassed GEnie, and by the mid-1990s, it passed Prodigy (which
for several years allowed AOL advertising) and CompuServe.
Originally, AOL charged its users an hourly fee, but in 1996 this changed
and a flat rate of $19.99 a month was charged. Within three years, AOL's
userbase grew to 10 million people. During this time, AOL connections would
be flooded with users trying to get on, and many canceled their accounts due
to constant busy signals. Also, games which used to be paid for with the
hourly fee migrated in droves to the Internet.AOL was quickly running out of room in 1996 for its network at the Vienna,
VA campus and moved to Dulles, VA a short distance away. The move to the
Dulles took place in 1997 and provided room for future growth.
AOL was relatively late in providing access to the open Internet.
Originally, only some Internet features were accessible through a
proprietary interface but eventually it became possible to run other
Internet software while logged in through AOL. They were the first online
service to seamlessly integrate a web browser into content.AOL introduced the concept of Buddy Lists, leveraging their one-on-one
instant messaging technology.Change in focus
Since its merger with Time Warner, the value of AOL has dropped from its
$200 billion high. It has seen similar losses among its subscription rate.
It has since attempted to reposition itself as a content provider similar to
companies such as Yahoo! as opposed to an Internet service provider which
delivered content only to subscribers in what was termed a "walled garden".
In 2005, AOL broadcasted the Live 8 concert live over the Internet, and
thousands of users downloaded clips of the concert over the following
months.
In 2004 along with the launch of AOL 4.0 optimized, AOL also made available
the option of personalized greetings. Which would enable the user to hear
his or her name while accessing basic functions, mail alerts and logging in
or out. America Online users can access the greetings recorded by the female
voice of Patricia Walden or the male voice of Chris Kepics (http://chriskepics.googlepages.com)
by installing version 9.0 optimized which can be done online by going to AOL
Keyword: Upgrade. Once the user is running the current program, go to
Keyword: Event Sounds, then select "Change" and "Add Your Name" to access
the voices.
AOL eventually announced plans to offer subscribers classic television
programs for free with commercials inserted via its new IN2TV service. At
the time of launch, AOL made available Warner Bros. Television's vast
library of programs, with Welcome Back Kotter as its marquee offering. Other
shows include Scarecrow and Mrs. King, The F.B.I., F Troop, and Growing
Pains.In 2006, AOL informed its American customers that it would be increasing the
price of its dial-up access to $25.90. The increase was part of an effort to
migrate the service's remaining dial-up users to broadband, as the increased
price was the same price they had been charging for monthly DSL access.[8]
However, AOL has started offering their services for $9.95 a month for
unlimited dial-up access.[9]
On April 3, 2006, AOL announced that the full name "America Online" will be
retired, and that the official name of the service is now "AOL".[10]
On August 2, 2006, AOL announced that they will give away e-mail accounts
and software previously available only to its paying customers in a strategy
shift likely to accelerate the decline in its core Internet access business.
The decision removes the few remaining reasons for many AOL subscribers to
keep paying when they already have high-speed Internet access through a
cable or phone company. AOL hopes that by making services free, it can draw
Internet users to its ad-supported Web sites and keep them from defecting to
Microsoft and Yahoo!, which have offered free e-mail for years.
Controversies
Being named #1 in PC World's list of the 25 worst tech products of all
time,[11] AOL has been involved in many controversies.
Community leaders
Prior to mid 2005, AOL used volunteers called Community Leaders, or CLs, to
monitor chatrooms, message boards, and libraries. Some community leaders
were recruited for content design and maintenance using a proprietary
language and interface called RAINMAN, although most content maintenance was
performed by partner and internal employees.
In 1999, Kelly Hallissey and Brian Williams, former Community Leaders and
founders of an anti-AOL website, filed a class action lawsuit against AOL
citing violations of U.S. labor laws in its usage of CLs. The Department of
Labor investigated but came to no conclusions, closing their investigation
in 2001. In light of these events, AOL began drastically reducing the
responsibilities and privileges of its volunteers in 2000. The program was
eventually ended on June 8, 2005. Current Community Leaders at the time were
offered 12 months of credit on their accounts.
Billing disputes
AOL has faced a number of lawsuits over claims that it has been slow to stop
billing people after their accounts have been cancelled, either by the
company or the user. In addition, AOL changed its method of calculating used
minutes in response to a class action lawsuit. Previously, AOL would add
fifteen seconds to the time a user was connected to the service and round up
to the next whole minute (thus, a person who used the service for 11 minutes
and 46 seconds would be charged for 13 minutes). AOL claimed this was to
account for sign on/sign off time, but because this practice was not made
known to its customers, the plaintiffs won (some also pointed out that
signing on and off did not always take 15 seconds, especially when
connecting via another ISP). AOL disclosed its connection time calculation
methods to all of its customers and credited them with extra free hours. In
addition, the AOL software would notify the user of exactly how long they
were connected and how many minutes they were being charged.Account cancellation
In response to approximately 300 consumer complaints, then-New York Attorney
General Eliot Spitzer’s office began an inquiry of AOL’s customer service
policies. The investigation revealed that the company had an elaborate
scheme for rewarding employees who purported to retain or "save" subscribers
who had called to cancel their Internet service. In many instances, such
retention was done against subscribers’ wishes, or without their consent.
Under the scheme, consumer service personnel received bonuses worth tens of
thousands of dollars if they could successfully dissuade or "save" half of
the people who called to cancel service. For several years, AOL had
instituted minimum retention or "save" percentages, which consumer
representatives were expected to meet. These bonuses, and the minimum "save"
rates accompanying them, had the effect of employees not honoring
cancellations, or otherwise making cancellation unduly difficult for
consumers.
Many customers complained that AOL personnel ignored their demands to cancel
service and stop billing. On August 24, 2005, America Online agreed to pay
$1.25 million to the state of New York and reformed its customer service
procedures. Under the agreement, AOL will no longer require its customer
service representatives to meet a minimum quota for customer retention in
order to receive a bonus. However, many AOL users outside New York still
claim to have problems canceling their accounts.
On June 13, 2006, a man named Vincent Ferrari documented his account
cancellation phone call in a blog post, stating he had switched to broadband
years earlier. In the recorded phone call, the AOL representative refused to
cancel the account unless the 30-year-old Ferrari explained why AOL hours
were still being recorded on it. Ferrari insisted that AOL software was not
even installed on the computer. When Ferrari demanded that the account be
canceled regardless, the AOL representative asked to speak with Ferrari's
father, for whom the account had been set up. The conversation was aired on
CNBC. When CNBC reporters tried to have an account on AOL cancelled, they
were hung up on immediately and it ultimately took more than 45 minutes to
cancel the account. AOL eventually fired the representative who had spoken
to Ferrari and issued an apology.[12]
On July 19, 2006, AOL's entire retention manual was released on the
Internet. [1] (7MB PDF).
On August 3, 2006, Time Warner announced that the company would be
dissolving AOL's retention centers due to its profits hinging on $1 billion
in cost cuts. The company estimates that it will lose more than six million
subscribers over the next year. [2]
Currently, Free Account members who try to cancel their accounts, via AOL
Keyword "cancel", are only redirected to a website allowing them to choose
from three different paid membership plans, making it difficult to cancel
the account.
Software
In 2000, AOL was served with an $8 billion lawsuit alleging that its (now
outdated) AOL 5.0 software caused significant difficulties for users
attempting to use third-party Internet service providers. The lawsuit sought
damages of up to $1000 for each user that had downloaded the software cited
at the time of the lawsuit. AOL later agreed to a settlement of $15 million,
without admission of wrongdoing. Now, the AOL software has a feature called
AOL Dialer, or AOL Connect on Mac OS X. This feature allows users to connect
to the ISP without running the full interface. This allows users to use only
the applications they wish to use, especially if they do not favor the AOL
Browser.
Usenet newsgroups
When AOL gave clients access to Usenet in 1993, they hid at least one
newsgroup in standard list view: alt.aol-sucks. AOL did list the newsgroup
in the alternative description view, but changed the description to "Flames
and complaints about America Online". With AOL clients swarming Usenet
newsgroups, the old, existing user base started to develop a strong distaste
for both AOL and its clients, referring to the new state of affairs as
Eternal September. The AOL clients became renowned for their one- or
two-worded replies, such as "me too", contributing nothing to the overall
discussions. Thus, whenever someone today writes "AOL" in a post, they
usually mean "I agree" or some intentionally stupid comment with reference
to the early days of AOL clients' access to Usenet.
Terms of Service (TOS)
There have been many complaints over rules that govern AOL's members
conduct, called the Terms of Service, which apply to everyone who uses AOL,
regardless of age, or where an AOL member is on the Internet. Claims are
that these rules are too strict to follow (many find AOL's authority to
change these terms at any given time and without warning particularly
troublesome).[Who?] TOS is known as COS (conditions of service) in the UK.
Certified e-mail
In early 2005, AOL stated its intention to implement certified e-mail, which
will allow companies to send email to users with whom they have pre-existing
business relationships, with a visual indication that the email is from a
trusted source and without the risk that the email messages might be blocked
or stripped by spam filters. This decision has drawn fire from MoveOn, which
characterizes the program as an "e-mail tax". Esther Dyson defended the move
in a New York Times editorial saying "I hope Goodmail succeeds, and that it
has lots of competition. I also think it and its competitors will eventually
transform into services that more directly serve the interests of mail
recipients. Instead of the fees going to Goodmail and EON, they will also be
shared with the individual recipients."[13]
Search data release
On August 4, 2006, AOL released a compressed text file on one of its
websites containing twenty million search keywords for over 650,000 users
over a 3-month period between March 1, 2006 and May 31, intended for
research purposes. AOL pulled the file from public access by August 7, but
not before its wide distribution on the Internet by others. Derivative
research, titled "A Picture of Search" was published by authors Pass,
Chowdhury and Torgeson for The First International Conference on Scalable
Information Systems.
This data is being used by Web sites such as AOLstalker for entertainment
purposes, where users of AOLstalker are encouraged to judge AOL clients
based on the humorousness of personal details revealed by search behavior.
Company purchases
As it grew, AOL purchased many other software companies, including:
* Redgate Communications, in August, 1994, through which Ted Leonsis joined
AOL.
* BookLink bought on December 29, 1994.
* NaviSoft's NaviServer (later to become AOLserver) on November 30, 1994.
* Medior in May, 1995, through which Barry Schuler joined the company.
* Ubique maker of Virtual Places on September 22, 1995.
* Johnson-Grace, developers of data compression technology, on February 1,
1996
* GNN Global Network Navigator, 1995
* iAmaze
* ImagiNation Network (I.N.N.) from AT&T on August 6, 1996.
* CompuServe on February 22, 1998.
* Mirabilis (maker of ICQ) on June 8, 1998.
* Personal Library Software (PLS) (maker of CPL full text retrieval engine
software) on November 11, 1998.
* Nullsoft (maker of Winamp), in 1999 for $86 million
* Netscape, on March 17, 1999 for $4.2 billion.
* NewMedicalHelp Online help
* Spinner.com in May 1999
* Moviefone on May 21, 1999 as part of a $525 million stock deal.
* Tegic on December 1, 1999.
* Mapquest on July 3, 2000.
* Quack.com, a voice-based infrastructure and services company, on August
31, 2000 for $200 million.
* eVoice, a telecom services company, in 2001 .
* InfoInterActive, a telecom software company, on July 19, 2001.
* DeadAIM in 2003 .
* Singingfish audio and video search engine, November 2003 .
* Advertising.com, an Internet advertising agency, on August 2, 2004.
* MailBlocks, a personal, Web-based email service, on August 4, 2004.
* Xdrive, a leading provider of online storage and file sharing services, on
August 4, 2005.
* Wildseed, a privately held mobile software vendor, on August 8, 2005.
* Weblogs, Inc., a blogging network that runs such sites as Engadget,
Autoblog, Cinematical and TVSquad, on October 6, 2005, for $30 million.
* MusicNow, an online music service, from Circuit City, on November 3, 2005.
* Truveo, Inc., a video search company, on December 21, 2005, for $50
million.
* Lightningcast, Inc a provider of technology that enables broadband audio
and video marketing, branding and advertising, in May 2006 .
* Userplane, a social networking software provider, in August 2006.[14]
* GameDaily, a gaming web site, in August 2006.[15]
* Relegence, a financial news and information services company, in November
2006 for between $55 and $65 million.[16]
* ADTECH, an online adserving company based in Germany[17]
* TradeDoubler, an Internet marketing provider based in Sweden, for $900
million. (pending approval of TradeDoubler shareholders)
Company sales
AOL (Time Warner) has sold a number of its sub-companies in Europe.
AOL Europe has six million users, but its subscription base had been
steadily declining. In 2005, 287,000 European AOL online users migrated to
other service providers.[18]
AOL Germany
In September 2006, AOL Germany's ISP business (AOL Deutschland) was sold for
$863m (€675m) to Telecom Italia.[19]
AOL UK
In October 2006, AOL UK's ISP business was sold for $688m (£370m) to
Carphone Warehouse.[20]
* Randy Falco (CEO and board chairman)
* Ron Grant (President and COO)
* Jonathan Miller (former CEO and board chairman)
* Jim Kimsey (former CEO and board chairman)
* Steve Case (former CEO and board chairman)
* Barry Schuler (former CEO)
* Jan Brandt (former President of Marketing)
* Jim Barksdale (former director)
* Colin Powell (former director)
* Alexander Haig (former director)
* John Barnes (former head researcher)
* Justin Frankel (Nullsoft founder)
* Mary Cheney (vice president for consumer advocacy and daughter of
Vice-President Dick Cheney)
* Ted Leonsis (Vice-Chairman, President AOL Audience Group)
* Randall Boe (Executive Vice President and General Counsel)
* Michael Powell (during merging with Time Warner)
* Marc Andreessen (Netscape co-founder)
* Jason Smathers (former AOL employee convicted of stealing the Internet
provider's entire subscriber list -- over 30 million consumers, and their 92
million screen names -- and selling it to a known spammer.)
* Jason Calacanis (former CEO of Weblogs, Inc. and former GM of Netscape)
* Maureen Govern (former CTO)
* Da Chronic (maker of AOHell)[21][22]
McAfee
AOL includes McAfee VirusScan and McAfee Firewall Express for its
subscribers. Upon introduction, McAfee VirusScan was 8.0 and Firewall
Express was 5.0. Initially, it was only available to subscribers using AOL
8.0 and 9.0 software; but has since become available to anyone using
versions as old as 6.0.
In late-2005, AOL released the AOL Safety and Security Center, it was
designed to be an all-in-one solution to security needs. It included McAfee
powered virus protection, spyware, spam and phishing protection, plus
parental controls and a firewall. The antivirus was offered free but only to
users with an AOL e-mail address or an AOL My eAddress running Microsoft
Windows XP.
In mid-2006, AOL began offering a new version of virus and trojan
protection, called AOL Active Virus Shield. The software is not made by
McAfee, but instead is made by Kaspersky Labs. This antivirus software is
free, and does not require an AOL account, only an e-mail address. This
software runs on Microsoft operating systems such as Windows 98, 2000, ME &
XP.
AOL Keywords
Keywords are words or phrases that act as shortcuts to AOL areas and Web
sites. For example, to view football news and results, you go to AOL
Keyword: Football.
Many companies used to pay AOL to have their content featured as an AOL
Keyword. One used to see AOL Keywords listed on products or in
advertisements in much the same way that Web URLs are used today.
Some AOL keywords at AOL USA, AOL Germany, AOL Canada or AOL UK only work in
these countries and cannot be used by AOL customers in other countries (and
vice versa). Every other country (where AOL is available) has its own AOL
keyword(s).Free services
On Wednesday August 2, 2006 AOL announced: "We’re in the process of offering
all of our content and many of our services for free -- with or without an
AOL Internet connection."[23]
Among the announced plans are free email services similar to many 'free'
email providers. Chatrooms are included with the free service, but users are
required to verify the age of an account created under the free plan using a
credit card. AOL charges $1 to the credit card provided and then immediately
refunds the charge. Thus people making new accounts currently experience
problems where as those who have simply converted their pay accounts over to
the free plan can chat without worry.
The current version of AOL's software as of August 2006, AOL 9.0, was once
identified by Stopbadware as being "under investigation" [3], for installing
additional software without disclosure, and modifying browser preferences,
toolbars, and icons. However, as of the release of AOL 9.0 VR on January 26,
2007, it is no longer considered badware due to changes AOL made in the
software [4].
On 16 February 2007, it was announced that AOL now supports OpenID.On October 4, 2006, AOL released its new, free internet suite, AOL OpenRide,
which combines a web browser, instant messenger, email client and media
player in one program window.
AOL currently provides free usage of a custom domain name, which it calls an
AOL My eAddress. This currently allows you to create an e-mail address like
'example@whateveryouwant.com', and allows up to 100 other addresses to be
created. These e-mail accounts can be accessed in similar manner to other
AOL and AIM e-mail accounts. The domain, however, is currently limited to
e-mail through AOL's service, and is solely registered to AOL. This may make
it unsuitable for a corporate image, and currently does not allow a website
or DNS configuration. Details can be found in the AOL My eAddress Terms of
Service under section 4 'Domain Name Registrations'.
In late 2006, AOL began offering free and unlimited digital picture storage
for anyone who has an account (even free ones) with AOL, AIM, or AOL My
eAddress. Users can access their photos at [5] which can be accessed with
any account type, paid or free. There is no storage limit on the number of
digital photos, and original resolutions are preserved. An ActiveX control
provides a drag-n-drop interface, permitting users to drop an entire folder
of photos into the web page to upload them. Features include tagging and
photo descriptions, similar to Flickr.com's features.
UnCut Video
AOL's latest contribution to its free services is UnCut Video. UnCut Video
allows registered users to post and comment on videos[6].
YouTube partnership
In addition to hosting UnCut Video, AOL is rumored to be partnering up with
YouTube by integrating video services [7]. Based on the leaked internal web
site at AOL, some have also speculated that YouTube is countering MySpace's
efforts to compete with them [8].
Xdrive
Xdrive is a service offered by AOL which allows users to backup their files
over the Internet. The service provides a free 5 GB account (free online
storage) to anyone who has, or is willing to sign up for a free AOL
screenname.[24]
Xdrive also offers remote backup services and 50GB of storage for a $9.95
per month fee.[24]
Recently, problems have arisen with Xdrive signups. People who sign up for
Xdrive using an existing AOL screenname have had their screenname disabled
without explanation. Those who had been using AIM as a free service, even
under screennames in existence for many years, have been unable to get the
accounts reinstated or access the data associated with them.[25] In
addition, affected users with free AIM accounts cannot reach AOL for help or
even for information, as their phone support explicitly excludes such users.
AOL is apparently either unaware of this problem or has no intention to
investigate or rectify it. In addition canceling the account seems to be
very difficult even for paying customers. Online help suggests that it can
be done with either support email or by phone using 1-800 number.
Unfortunately due to constant technical problems the phone number and the
email address are not visible for every paying account as they should be.
Even with email canceling option many have stated that phone call to 1-800
number was required while others have found that changing their credit card
was the only option.
Movie studios partnership
On Friday, August 25, 2006, AOL announced that it had signed a deal with
several major movie studios to open an online video store allowing users to
"download to own" full length movies and television shows. The deal was
signed with News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox, Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures Home
Entertainment, NBC Universal's Universal Pictures, and Time Warner Inc.'s
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group[26]
References
1. ^ AOL LLC on Yahoo HotJobs. Retrieved on 2007-01-16.
2. ^ a b c Holahan, Catherine. "Will Less Be More for AOL?", BusinessWeek,
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3. ^ Li, Kenneth. "AOL expected to scrap charges", Yahoo!, 2006-07-26.
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4. ^ Yang, Catherine. "Has AOL Met Its Match?", BusinessWeek, 2005-11-11.
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5. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6039740.stm
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* Klein, Alec (2003). Stealing Time: Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the
Collapse of AOL Time Warner. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-5984-X.
* Mehta, Stephanie N. & Vogelstein, Fred (November 14, 2005). "AOL: The
Relaunch". Fortune, p. 84 - 88.
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Search Dictionary: a dictionary of the most common search terms and keywords used on the internet.