Why did anyone ever pay for AOL?

Ahhh, how soon we forget.

Before Netscape brought us the WWW, there were few options to get "online."
Online was either BBS's, or services like Compuserve, or GEnie. Then came
along AOL, and with their marketing blitz took over the "online" world. That
was until the WWW was unleashed via Netscape.

There was a point when the easiest way to get "online" was to subscribe to
AOL. Those days are LONG gone, so I wonder why anyone still pays for AOL.

--Mike


"BAR" wrote in message
...
Why did anyone ever pay for AOL?

Mike wrote:
Do people still pay for AOL?

--Mike

"Tim" wrote in message
...
HA! AOL drops Usnet, photo hosting, and now MAaffee....


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On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:59:57 -0500, wrote:

There was a time when it was only Prodigy and AOL

Let us not forget Compuserve which was there *long* before Prodigy or
AOL. Compuserve had the very best national and international dial-up
network, EMAIL and many valuable support forums and databases. They
could have easily converted their proprietaty screen formats to HTML
and web based presentation but they didn't see the need for it.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:59:57 -0500, wrote:

There was a time when it was only Prodigy and AOL

Let us not forget Compuserve which was there *long* before Prodigy or
AOL. Compuserve had the very best national and international dial-up
network, EMAIL and many valuable support forums and databases. They
could have easily converted their proprietaty screen formats to HTML
and web based presentation but they didn't see the need for it.


I should read responses before I reply. ;-)

--mike

On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:41:33 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:59:57 -0500, wrote:

There was a time when it was only Prodigy and AOL

Let us not forget Compuserve which was there *long* before Prodigy or
AOL. Compuserve had the very best national and international dial-up
network, EMAIL and many valuable support forums and databases. They
could have easily converted their proprietaty screen formats to HTML
and web based presentation but they didn't see the need for it.

Heh - reminds me of a certain computer company executive who told me
that email would never become a mass market feature for the home
computer because the routing systems would be too complex, too
expensive to build and besides, telephones were easier.

Tom Francis - SWSports wrote:
On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:41:33 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:59:57 -0500, wrote:

There was a time when it was only Prodigy and AOL
Let us not forget Compuserve which was there *long* before Prodigy or
AOL. Compuserve had the very best national and international dial-up
network, EMAIL and many valuable support forums and databases. They
could have easily converted their proprietaty screen formats to HTML
and web based presentation but they didn't see the need for it.

Heh - reminds me of a certain computer company executive who told me
that email would never become a mass market feature for the home
computer because the routing systems would be too complex, too
expensive to build and besides, telephones were easier.

Was this the profit himself, Edson?

Wayne.B wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:59:57 -0500, wrote:

There was a time when it was only Prodigy and AOL

Let us not forget Compuserve which was there *long* before Prodigy or
AOL. Compuserve had the very best national and international dial-up
network, EMAIL and many valuable support forums and databases. They
could have easily converted their proprietaty screen formats to HTML
and web based presentation but they didn't see the need for it.


It is a problem with most leaders in any industry, they become
complacent and don't adapt well to changes. Bill Gates has stated for
15 yrs of so, that his biggest fear concerning Microsoft was that they
would fail to adapt quickly in a rapidly changing marketing place.
Large companies become like a supertanker, very difficult and slow when
they want to change directions. The way they handled Vista is an
example of this problem. I want MS to have strong and viable
competition, but I would hate to see them go out of business. Millions
of of long term Windows supporters have decide Mac is superior to
Windows (including Harry. Vista's most vocal supporter). They are also
willing to pay a substantial upcharge for a Mac, it highlights the
real and perceived problems of Windows. If they don't' change their
"bull in a china shop" approach to marketing, they will become another
Prodigy, Compuserve and AOL.

wrote in message
...
On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:41:33 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

Let us not forget Compuserve which was there *long* before Prodigy or
AOL.
Yep but if your company wasn't paying the bill it was way too
expensive for most mortals and they didn't have much in the way of
entertainment services. I had Prodigy pretty much from day 1 (IBM
subsidized it for us) They had great content for the day.
I got AOL very early on because my wife's family were on it. I think
they had an IBEW deal. I really didn't use it myself but my wife used
Email a lot to talk to the folks up north. I did start using this as
my Email when I left IBM in 96. It was easy for people since my IBM
address was gfretwel@atlvmic1 on the VM system
When Prodigy dropped the "Classic" service, I dropped them.
I still keep this AOL account but I think it will go away soon, when I
get my own domain. That way I will own my Email address. It will take
a while to get the word out tho, since I have had this as my primary
address for so long.


Compuserve wasn't that bad if you watched yourself. I was a subscriber from
1982 - 2000. The latter 6 years were free since I was a sysop on one of
their more popular forums.

--Mike

wrote:
On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:41:33 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

Let us not forget Compuserve which was there *long* before Prodigy or
AOL.
Yep but if your company wasn't paying the bill it was way too
expensive for most mortals and they didn't have much in the way of
entertainment services. I had Prodigy pretty much from day 1 (IBM
subsidized it for us) They had great content for the day.
I got AOL very early on because my wife's family were on it. I think
they had an IBEW deal. I really didn't use it myself but my wife used
Email a lot to talk to the folks up north. I did start using this as
my Email when I left IBM in 96. It was easy for people since my IBM
address was gfretwel@atlvmic1 on the VM system
When Prodigy dropped the "Classic" service, I dropped them.
I still keep this AOL account but I think it will go away soon, when I
get my own domain. That way I will own my Email address. It will take
a while to get the word out tho, since I have had this as my primary
address for so long.


You won't be owning your e-mail address, you will be renting it from ICANN.

wrote:
On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:41:33 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

Let us not forget Compuserve which was there *long* before Prodigy or
AOL.
Yep but if your company wasn't paying the bill it was way too
expensive for most mortals and they didn't have much in the way of
entertainment services. I had Prodigy pretty much from day 1 (IBM
subsidized it for us) They had great content for the day.
I got AOL very early on because my wife's family were on it. I think
they had an IBEW deal. I really didn't use it myself but my wife used
Email a lot to talk to the folks up north. I did start using this as
my Email when I left IBM in 96. It was easy for people since my IBM
address was gfretwel@atlvmic1 on the VM system
When Prodigy dropped the "Classic" service, I dropped them.
I still keep this AOL account but I think it will go away soon, when I
get my own domain. That way I will own my Email address. It will take
a while to get the word out tho, since I have had this as my primary
address for so long.


You don't need to pay for an AOL account to have AOL email. I would
check and verify that you can keep the same email address even if you
drop their service.

wrote in message
...
On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:41:33 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

Let us not forget Compuserve which was there *long* before Prodigy or
AOL.
Yep but if your company wasn't paying the bill it was way too
expensive for most mortals and they didn't have much in the way of
entertainment services. I had Prodigy pretty much from day 1 (IBM
subsidized it for us) They had great content for the day.
I got AOL very early on because my wife's family were on it. I think
they had an IBEW deal. I really didn't use it myself but my wife used
Email a lot to talk to the folks up north. I did start using this as
my Email when I left IBM in 96. It was easy for people since my IBM
address was gfretwel@atlvmic1 on the VM system
When Prodigy dropped the "Classic" service, I dropped them.
I still keep this AOL account but I think it will go away soon, when I
get my own domain. That way I will own my Email address. It will take
a while to get the word out tho, since I have had this as my primary
address for so long.


I had a bunch of email addresses from different companies I worked for, but
have kept the netcom address for years. When I did consulting, was good to
not have to change emails. Earthlink is the final owner, but though at
least 4 companies, they have kept the old email address valid.