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| {{Infobox_Company | | {{Infobox_Company | | ||
| company_name = AOL LLC | | company_name = AOL LLC | | ||
| company_logo = ] | | company_logo = ] | | ||
| company_type = Owned by ] (95%), ] (5%) | | company_type = Owned by ] (95%), ] (5%) | | ||
| company_slogan = " |
company_slogan = "We are so gay, it is hopeless"| | ||
| foundation = 1985| | |||
| location = ] in ]| | |||
| key_people = ], ]| | |||
| num_employees = about 20,000| | |||
| industry = ] & ]| | |||
| products = ]| | |||
| revenue = $8.3 billion ({{loss}}5%) ] (])| | |||
| homepage = | |||
| }} | |||
| '''AOL LLC''' (formerly '''America Online, Inc''') is an ]-based ], ], and media company operated by ]. Based in ], a community in ], ], with regional branches around the world, it was by far the most successful proprietary online service, with more than 32 million subscribers at one point in the ], ], ], ], the ], ] (declared bankrupt in 2004), ] and formerly ]. In early 2005, AOL ] stopped its service. In the fall of 2004, AOL reported total subscribers had dropped to 24 million, a drop of over a quarter of its subscribers. In late 1996, AOL suspended all dialup service within ] in the face of massive billing ], forcing the company into a rare case of full market retreat. | |||
| For many Americans through the mid to late ], AOL ''was'' the Internet, but the rise of high-speed Internet access from cable and telephone companies as well as the increasing sophistication of the public in handling browsers and other Internet utilities has cut into its user base. In 2000 AOL and ] announced plans to merge, and the deal was approved by the ] on ] ]. This merger was primarily a product of the Internet mania of the late 1990's, known as the ]. The subsequent massive decline in value of stocks such as AOL resulted in much recrimination over the merger. Also, the merger with AOL allowed for Time Warner to vote off WCW (World Championship Wrestling). | |||
| News reports in the fall of 2005 indicated a renewed interest in buying out AOL. Suitors such as ], ], ] and ] have had discussions with ] about a possible purchase, and on ], ], Time Warner and Google announced that they were starting exclusive talks for Google to purchase $1 billion in AOL stock, a 5% share. | |||
| Although its dialup market is shrinking as more members switch to high-speed services, the success of its AOL for Broadband program has helped it to maintain members that would otherwise totally drop the AOL service. This combined with its growing advertising revenue through its relationship with Google, AOL collected 8.7 billion US dollars in revenue for 2004. In early March 2006, AOL informed its members that the narrowband monthly rate would be increasing from $23.90 to $25.90. | |||
| ] | |||
| ==History== | |||
| {| class="wikitable" style="float: right;" | |||
| ! colspan="2" | AOL release timeline | |||
| |- | |||
| | ] | |||
| | AOL for Macintosh gains popularity as a Mac BBS | |||
| |- | |||
| | ] | |||
| | AOL for ] launched | |||
| |- | |||
| | ] | |||
| | AOL for ] launched, AOL 2.0 for ] launched | |||
| |- | |||
| | ] | |||
| | AOL 2.0 for ] launched | |||
| |- | |||
| | ] | |||
| | AOL 3.0 launched | |||
| |- | |||
| | ] | |||
| | AOL 4.0 launched | |||
| |- | |||
| | ] | |||
| | AOL 5.0 launched | |||
| |- | |||
| | ] | |||
| | AOL 6.0 launched | |||
| |- | |||
| | ] | |||
| | AOL 7.0 launched | |||
| |- | |||
| | ] | |||
| | AOL 8.0 launched | |||
| |- | |||
| | ] | |||
| | AOL 9.0 Optimized launched | |||
| |- | |||
| | ] | |||
| | AOL 9.0 Optimized SE/LE launched | |||
| |- | |||
| | ] | |||
| | AOL 9.0 Security Edition SE/LE launched | |||
| |- | |||
| | ] | |||
| | AOL Suite launched | |||
| |} | |||
| AOL began as a short-lived venture called Control Video Corporation (or CVC), founded by ]. Its sole product was an online service called ] for the ] ] after von Meister's idea of buying music on demand was rejected by ]. (Klein, 2003) Subscribers bought a ] 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 an hour. | |||
| In 1983 the company nearly went ], and an investor in Control Video, ], had a friend of his, ], brought in as a manufacturing consultant. That same year, ] was hired as a part-time consultant; later on that year, he joined the company as a full-time marketing employee upon the joint recommendations of von Meister and Kimsey. Kimsey went on to become the ] (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 when he himself retired, which Case did in 1991. | |||
| ] | |||
| Kimsey changed the company's strategy, and in 1985 launched a sort of mega-] for ] and ] computers, originally called ] ("Q-Link" for short). In May ], Quantum and Apple launched ] Personal Edition for ] and ] computers. After the two companies parted ways in October ], Quantum changed the service's name to America Online. , <!--both links retrieved Sep 24 2005--> In August ], Quantum launched ], a service for IBM-compatible ] developed in a joint venture with the ]. | |||
| In the early years of AOL the company introduced many innovative online interactive titles and games, including graphical chat environments ] (1986) and ] (1989), the first online interactive fiction series ] by ] (1988), ], the first fully automated ] game (1989), and the original ] title '']'', the first Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (]) to depict the adventure with graphics instead of text (1991). | |||
| In February 1991 AOL for ] was launched using a ] interface followed a year later by AOL for Windows. In October ], Quantum changed its name to America Online. These changes coincided with growth in pay-based BBS services, like ], ], and ]. AOL discontinued Q-Link and PC Link in the fall of 1994. | |||
| == Massive growth == | |||
| Case drove AOL as the online service for people unfamiliar with ]s, in particular contrast to ], which had long served the technical community. AOL was the first online service to require use of ] software, rather than a standard terminal program; as a result it was able to offer a ] (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 (borrowed from ]), which 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 ]. | |||
| Under Case's guidance, AOL committed to including ] in its mix of products even when it was only a Commodore 64 service. It hosted the first ] game from any service '']'' (1989-1991); the first graphical online community ('']'' from ]); and the first graphical ], '']'' from ] (1991-1997) and the first chat room-based text role-playing game ], a horror role-playing game from Hecklers Online and ] | |||
| AOL quickly surpassed ], and by the mid-], it passed ] (which for several years allowed AOL advertising) and ]. | |||
| 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 would grow 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 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 ]s, leveraging their one-on-one ] technology. | |||
| Since its merger with Time Warner, the value of AOL has dropped from its $200 billion high and it has seen a 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 broadcast the ] concert live over the Internet, and thousands of users downloaded clips of the concert over the following months. | |||
| More recently, AOL has announced plans to offer subscribers classic television programs for free with commercials inserted via its new ] service. At the time of launch, AOL made available ]'s vast library of programs, with '']'' as its marquee offering. Other shows include '']'', '']'', '']'', and '']''. | |||
| One of AOL's recently added premium services is AOL Total Talk, a VoiP Internet service. | |||
| 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 the acronym "AOL". | |||
| == CD-ROM distribution == | |||
| {{seealso|AOL disk collecting}} | |||
| AOL was able to rapidly bolster its growth by mailing out sign-up ]s and ]s containing free trials to hundreds of millions of households. Once offering only a few hours of free service, the discs now include up to a month's worth of free subscription time. | |||
| This long and relentless campaign has produced a backlash, however. One program, called ], seeks to gather one million unwanted AOL CDs and dump them at AOL headquarters. Other organizations have objected upon both ] and ] grounds; for example, many environmentalists say that AOL's CDs are largely unwanted and result in massive non-biodegradable plastic waste. | |||
| AOL's mailings have never violated the law, though, and have consistently interested new customers. Although AOL has provided means for people to remove themselves from AOL mailing lists, ] has documented claims that these removal attempts are sometimes ineffective. | |||
| Others view ] as valuable ] items due to the vast number of ] design variations. | |||
| ==Controversies== | |||
| ===Community Leaders=== | |||
| Prior to the middle of 2005, AOL used volunteers called ], 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 ], 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 ] against AOL citing violations of U.S. labor laws in its usage of CLs. The ] investigated but came to no conclusions, closing their investigation in 2001. In light of these events, AOL drastically began reducing the responsibilities and privileges of its volunteers in 2000. The program was eventually ended on ] ]. 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 lawsuit 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 for. | |||
| ===Account cancellation=== | |||
| In response to approximately 300 consumer complaints, ] Attorney General ]’s office began an inquiry of AOL’s customer service policies. The investigation revealed that the company had an elaborate system 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 system, 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 consumers complained that AOL personnel ignored their demands to cancel service and stop billing. | |||
| On ], ], 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 cancelling their accounts. | |||
| ===Cancelling An AOL Account=== | |||
| There is controversy of the procedures of AOL of the "Cancellation" Department. Some ex-AOL employees had confirmed this procedure of cancellation: | |||
| "...as a former employee who worked in cancellations, the easiest way is to just hang up. After you call in, verify your account (by providing screen name, answer the ASQ - account security question - the billing validator - last four digits of your payment method - or by providing the screen name, your name, and your complete address. Then simply say "I want to cancel my account" and hang up. By the guidelines AOL has set up, the representative MUST cancel the account..." | |||
| ===Software=== | |||
| In 2000, AOL was served with an $8 billion lawsuit alleging that its (now dated) 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. | |||
| It is also notable that AOL users are required to use the AOL browser (a variant of Internet Explorer) to access the ] and their ] accounts. This has brought upon many complaints, as it guarantees that AOL has ultimate control over what the user can access, and clearly restricts the user from using any alternative ] and/or ]. However, the main complaint regarding this factor has undoubtedly concerned the excessive advertising schemes present upon browser startup. Now, the AOL software has a feature called AOL Dialer, or AOL Connect on Mac OSX. 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 favour the AOL Browser. | |||
| === Usenet newsgroups === | |||
| When AOL gave clients access to ] in 1994, 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". | |||
| === Terms of Service (TOS) === | |||
| There have been many complaints over rules that govern AOL's members conduct, called the '']'', 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 and do not allow swearing. <!-- removed because doesn't make any sense: or a very flexible rule called room disruption. --> | |||
| ===Certified e-mail=== | |||
| In early 2005, AOL stated its intention to implement ], 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 ]s. This decision has drawn fire from ], which characterizes the program as an "e-mail tax". ] defended the move in a ] 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 AOL, they will also be shared with the individual recipients." | |||
| == Company purchases == | |||
| As it grew, AOL purchased many other software companies, including: | |||
| *] bought in December 1994. | |||
| *]'s ] (later to become ]) in 1994. | |||
| *] from ] in 1996. | |||
| *] in February 1998. | |||
| *] (maker of ]) in 1998. | |||
| *PLS text-search software in 1998, | |||
| *] (maker of ]), in 1999 for $86 million | |||
| *], in 1999 for $4.2 billion. | |||
| *] in 1999. | |||
| *] in December 1999. | |||
| *, a telecom software company, in July 2001. | |||
| *] search engine, November 2003. | |||
| *, an Internet advertising agency, in June 2004. | |||
| *, a personal, Web-based email service, in August 2004. | |||
| *, a privately held mobile software vendor, in August 2005. | |||
| *, a leading provider of online storage and file sharing services, also in August 2005. | |||
| *], a blogging network that runs such sites as ], ], ] and ], in October 2005, for $30 million. | |||
| *], a leading video search company, in December 2005, for an undisclosed value. | |||
| *] in 2003. | |||
| ==Notable persons associated with AOL== | |||
| *] (former CEO and board chairman) | |||
| *] (former CEO and board chairman) | |||
| *] (former President of Marketing) | |||
| *] (Nullsoft founder) | |||
| *] (Vice-Chairman, President AOL Audience Group) | |||
| *] (during merging with ]) | |||
| *] (Netscape co-founder) | |||
| *] (former AOL employee convicted of stealing the Internet provider's entire subscriber list -- over 30 million consumers, and their 90 million screen names -- and selling it to a known spammer.) | |||
| *] (Co-founder of Weblogs, Inc.) | |||
| ==McAfee== | |||
| AOL includes McAfee VirusScan and McAfee Firewall Express for its subscribers. At the time of the release, McAfee VirusScan was 8.0 and Firewall Express was 5.0. Initially, it was only available to subscribers using the AOL 8.0 and 9.0 software; but since is available to anyone as low as 6.0. To install McAfee VirusScan (8.0) for AOL subscribers you may go to AOL Keyword ''MCAFEE'' or access http://install.av.aol.com/. To install the Firewall Express, subscribers may go to AOL Keyword ''FIREWALLEXPRESS'' or access http://memberselfservice.aol.com/firewall/index.adp | |||
| Currently, AOL employs the use of Safety & Security Center (SSC) which contains McAfee VirusScan (10.0), McAfee Firewall (7.0), AOL Spyware Protection(2.2), and Phishing Protection. To download and install SSC, AOL subscribers may go to AOL Keyword ''SAFETY'', or access http://www.aol.com/safety/ | |||
| ==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. | |||
| You can use AOL Keywords in either of the following ways: | |||
| * Type a keyword directly into the white box on the AOL toolbar, then press the Enter key. | |||
| * Press the Ctrl and K keys at the same time, type a keyword and click Go. | |||
| Many companies used to pay AOL to have their site featured as a AOL Keyword. When you type in an AOL Keyword, it redirects you to an AOL members-only Site like '''aol://1722:billing''' or '''http://channels.aolsvc.co.uk/billing:1722''', but you need AOL's browser to access these places. The one with ''aol://'' in it uses a proprietary ](Uniform Resource Identifier) scheme that does not work in other browsers. | |||
| Some AOL keywords at AOL USA, AOL Germany, AOL Canada or AOL UK only works in these countries and cannot be used by AOL customers in other countries (and vice versa). Every other country (where AOL is available) has their own AOL keyword(s). | |||
| For a list of available Keywords, go to AOL Keyword: "Keyword List" (rec. for AOL in the United States) | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * | |||
| * ] | |||
| ==References== | |||
| *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 (Nov. 14, 2005). "AOL: The Relaunch". '']'', p. 84–88. | |||
| * | |||
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| * Disgruntled AOL 5.0 users seek up to $8 billion in damages | |||
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Revision as of 01:55, 23 May 2006
{{Infobox_Company |
company_name = AOL LLC | company_logo =| company_type = Owned by Time Warner (95%), Google (5%) | company_slogan = "We are so gay, it is hopeless"|
