How does AOL still exist?

[Arkaign]

Honest question .. I'm genuinely puzzled every time I see someone that has an AOL account.

 

[gorcorps]

anyone can create an AOL account, just like gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc

 

[brianmanahan]

i know a guy who made millions cuz he started at AOL as a programmer in the early 90's.

but it is a mere shadow of what it once was

 

[Arkaign]

anyone can create an AOL account, just like gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc

True, but I'm talking about actual paying subscribers, I know one!! He's old, but still.

 

[janas19]

True, but I'm talking about actual paying subscribers, I know one!! He's old, but still.

You answered your own question. Old, unwitting people.

:thumbup:

 

[nageov3t]

my mom subscribes to it on top of FIOS.

I've tried explaining to her why she doesn't need it, but whatever. it works for her and she doesn't mind paying the money. she's just more comfortable with the AOL welcome screen than opening up Firefox/Chrome/IE.

 

[Ichinisan]

I created a free AOL.com email address yesterday. Someone's scanner didn't support SSL encryption for the scan-to-email function, and most mail hosts require it.

 

[Lean L]

my mom subscribes to it on top of FIOS.

I've tried explaining to her why she doesn't need it, but whatever. it works for her and she doesn't mind paying the money. she's just more comfortable with the AOL welcome screen than opening up Firefox/Chrome/IE.

How is it possible to get that service still? I thought they made it free some time ago?

AOL really needs to die in the most painful way possible. Their interface was complete shit, and the software was extremely inefficient. Idk why their chat program was the de facto for so long...

They should have been forced to stop doing business just based on how difficult it is to cancel the service. You must call. You must scream at an outsourced indian for hours before it's finally canceled. And you must know the security question you set otherwise cancel your plans for the week. Luckily I remembered my answers of 'asd'.

 

[Arkaign]

How is it possible to get that service still? I thought they made it free some time ago?

AOL really needs to die in the most painful way possible. Their interface was complete shit, and the software was extremely inefficient. Idk why their chat program was the de facto for so long...

They should have been forced to stop doing business just based on how difficult it is to cancel the service. You must call. You must scream at an outsourced indian for hours before it's finally canceled. And you must know the security question you set otherwise cancel your plans for the week. Luckily I remembered my answers of 'asd'.

lol, agreed.

 

[zinfamous]

weird, didn't know they still provided their client--and that people still pay for it? bizarre.

But they've been a news portal for a few years now. Actually turning a mild, but decent profit, iirc.

 

[Jodell88]

weird, didn't know they still provided their client--and that people still pay for it? bizarre.

But they've been a news portal for a few years now. Actually turning a mild, but decent profit, iirc.

They also own engadget, autoblog and a few others.

 

[crashtestdummy]

my mom subscribes to it on top of FIOS.

I've tried explaining to her why she doesn't need it, but whatever. it works for her and she doesn't mind paying the money. she's just more comfortable with the AOL welcome screen than opening up Firefox/Chrome/IE.

This. My grandparents still use AOL. They're in their 80's, and AOL alone took them a long time to get comfortable with. They don't want to have to learn something new, especially since they don't use the internet for much other than email.

 

[darkxshade]

Anyone got any prefixes?

 

[darkswordsman17]

They also own engadget, autoblog and a few others.

Yeah, their blogs aren't too bad, generally they're like classier versions of the Gawker blogs.

Although I checked an AOL spam account I have recently and one of the news stories used some old as internet slang like pwn and I just rolled my eyes.

 

[Zeze]

They're not ISP anymore, but a content provider like Yahoo. That's how they make $.

 

[Deeko]

Their client application is primarily used by the polar opposite of anyone that would ever post on Anandtech - non technology types that have been using it for a decade or two and have no need or desire to learn nothing new. However, I do believe using that application over top of your broadband connection is free these days.

 

[Red Squirrel]

lol AOL. Do they still send out those annoying CDs? People found rather creative things to do with them over time. I never got one myself though, think it was just a US thing.

 

[trmiv]

As others have pointed out they are mainly a content provider now. They own Engadget, Winamp, Techcrunch, Joystiq, Huffington Post, autoblog, mapquest, games.com and a bunch of other stuff.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Additonally, there's still a fair amount of rural America which uses dial-up. I'm pretty sure my BIL in Wyoming uses a basic AOl dialup plan for like $10 per month.

 

[Doppel]

I don't even think AOL knows.

 

[paperfist]

My friend is a contractor, I just set him up with his own site/domain. He still is refusing to can his old ass AOL email addy and use the one that actually has to do with his business.

I have 2 sisters that won't let their AOL accounts die either. They are so used to it they don't want to change.

 

[BoomerD]

Why? Because, according to the corporate site...

At AOL, we're in the business of making the Internet better -- period. Through innovation and creativity, we've raised the bar and set the standard for what we believe high quality content is on the Internet.

Our content sites and products allow more than 250 million visitors around the world to access the best collection of journalists, artists and musicians on the web.

After 25 years, AOL is still very much a pioneer and we encourage you to come along for the ride and see what's next

http://corp.aol.com/

I've never had an AOL account of any kind, but I've known many people who did...and a few who still do. (also old fucks who don't want/afraid to change.)

 

[TangoJuliet]

My mom still thinks AOL is the internet even though she gets broadband through her cable provider. She just bought an iMac and asked me where AOL was. I told her its the little compass on the bottom of the screen. She asked me why it says Safari now so I told her they just renamed it for apple.

 

[MichaelD]

"Old people who are afraid of anything new."
/thread

 

[Arkaign]

My mom still thinks AOL is the internet even though she gets broadband through her cable provider. She just bought an iMac and asked me where AOL was. I told her its the little compass on the bottom of the screen. She asked me why it says Safari now so I told her they just renamed it for apple.

hahahah gold!