> He says that one of the company's irksome traits is deluging its members with advertising. "You know how when you log off, you get this message, 'Please wait while we update your software?'" says Cassel. "Well, they don't tell you, but what they're really doing is downloading ads to your hard drive, so that the very next time you sign on, you get hit with -- boom! -- an ad. You get ads in your mailbox and in your chat room and an ad in the status bar."<p>When I read this article, there were these ads:<p>* A giant top ad for Intel<p>* Left Column: Hertz banner, fixed with scroll<p>* Right Column: Various ads that scroll as you scroll down the page<p>* Far right column: Animated McCafe ad, fix with scroll<p>* Multiple ads between sections including video<p>* Ads at the end of the article, including SalonTV<p>* Center Sidebar: Reese's ad<p>* Right sidebar: Ad for pharma product, video;<p>Firefox, no adblock brand new MacBook Pro was unable to smoothly scroll this page.<p>The more things change, the more they stay the same indeed...
Years ago (it would have to be, yes?), my two sons and I went to Blockbuster to rent a video. The guy behind the counter asked us if we wanted to join some Blockbuster thing which would give us some videos for free but it cost to join. I knew we weren't interested so I just replied, "AOL sucks!"<p>A manager heard that and took me aside to let me know that all we had to do was sign up for the thing, then go online and cancel the account, it would wind up getting us the videos for free but at no cost and his store would still get credit for signing us up. Win, win!<p>A few weeks later, we were at a theater thinking we got rush hour prices. When told I was wrong, and we'd have to pay full price, I said, "AOL sucks!" getting a laugh out of my boys. The lady behind the counter asked me what that was about and then said, "Oh, here. Just take these. I don't care." Free tickets!<p>So now you know the running joke. For several years, when we'd walk up to a counter somewhere to pay, the first words out of our mouth, "AOL sucks!!"
I remember the exact same “conversion attempts”. In the late 90’s just after getting out of undergrad, I lived in a 55+ seniors community (different story...), and right away I Subscribed to the local cable internet service. Everyone else in the community was on dial-up AOL and I couldn’t understand why. Broadband is so much faster and you get all of the Internet! I even helped a few of them move over to what was then high speed Internet but each and every one of them went back to AOL within a month or so.<p>You can see the same thing looking at people glued to social media today. Same mentality. I don’t care about Internet, I want [Facebook / Insta / whatever].<p>It’s scary. If FB was an ISP that offered Facebook-only for $5 a month, I bet a lot of people would ditch their existing internet/data service.
I have an older friend I help from time to time. When he or one of his family get a new computer, when something breaks, etc.<p>His wife is still on AOL to this day. Their ISP is Comcast, they all use the newest windows and she has a few applications installed other than AOL. But 95% of her time on the computer is on AOL. She just can't see doing it any other way after using it for over 20 years.<p>I learned way more than I ever wanted to about AOL under the hood helping her through a few hardware upgrades.
I used to use it when I was out of college in the 90s.<p>There were some good reasons. I travelled for work to construction sites, and they had local dial in numbers in many places. I could check email from the construction trailer. They even had a 1-800 modem line (You were very time limited, 3 hours a month or something.)<p>I thought it worked pretty well.<p>Ubiquitous Broadband killed it.
Earlier this year I was pacing a marathon when I caught up to a young woman and ran with her for a few miles. She had recently graduated from college, so early 20s I suppose. We got to chatting and at some point I mentioned AOL. She had never heard of it. I suddenly felt very old. (I'm 47.)