AOL pretends to be the internet • Hacker News Board

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#11

Post by silisili » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 2:24 AM UTC

killjoywashere wrote: post #10

silisili wrote: post #5

If I'm honest, I kinda miss the AOL all in one approach. Email, news, stocks, chats, IMs, web search, all just there front and center. Easy to use, no trickery, no figuring out what sites or apps to use, as everyone else(generally) was on AOL. I wonder if an idea like that would work again - was just ahead of its time?

Like, a smartphone?

A smartphone would be near the opposite of that. Having to figure out what app others are using and install, and keep switching between them. With AOL if you wanted to contact someone, it was just IM(AIM), for example.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#12

Post by jj999 » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 2:24 AM UTC

OldGuyInTheClub wrote: post #4

I remember Usenet pre- and post- AOL. No forgiveness or forgetness.

If AOL didn't exist, something else would have killed this fragile defense-less network.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#13

Post by silisili » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 2:26 AM UTC

icedchai wrote: post #6

silisili wrote: post #5

If I'm honest, I kinda miss the AOL all in one approach. Email, news, stocks, chats, IMs, web search, all just there front and center. Easy to use, no trickery, no figuring out what sites or apps to use, as everyone else(generally) was on AOL. I wonder if an idea like that would work again - was just ahead of its time?

Yahoo was also like this for a while. Remember Yahoo chat? games? personals?

Yahoo had a lot of the same features, but never did it as cleanly as AOL. Perhaps because AOL provided an actual native client whereas I believe Yahoo was always just web based, which marred the experience quite a bit.

I guess the ultimate takeaway is that there's not a lot of money to be made if they're all gone now.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#14

Post by lmm » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 2:26 AM UTC

silisili wrote: post #5

If I'm honest, I kinda miss the AOL all in one approach. Email, news, stocks, chats, IMs, web search, all just there front and center. Easy to use, no trickery, no figuring out what sites or apps to use, as everyone else(generally) was on AOL. I wonder if an idea like that would work again - was just ahead of its time?

Yahoo was great for that. But apparently it wasn't popular enough (except in Japan).

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#15

Post by mr-pink » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 2:26 AM UTC

One of the things I really miss about the 'net in the early days was the tracking of users in order to sell targeted ads.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#16

Post by superkuh » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 2:30 AM UTC

AOL pretended but Cloudflare is making actual progress to becoming the gatekeeper for the internet.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#17

Post by OldGuyInTheClub » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 2:30 AM UTC

jj999 wrote: post #12

OldGuyInTheClub wrote: post #4

I remember Usenet pre- and post- AOL. No forgiveness or forgetness.

If AOL didn't exist, something else would have killed this fragile defense-less network.

Ah, but then I would have hated that thing, instead.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#18

Post by mjhay » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 2:31 AM UTC

mattl wrote: post #3

mjhay wrote: post #2

Kind of an aside, but one mind-boggling decision I never understood was that if the dial-up connection was disrupted, the entire AOL app closed with a "goodbye." If you were reading something, filling out a form, whatever, you're out of luck - despite the fact that you might have been able to quickly reconnect.

When was that? I briefly used AOL as a dial-up service in the UK circa 2000 because of the toll-free number and penny a minute billing and don’t recall this.

This was probably 1999 and before, and in the US. It was maddening, especially when one's parents might pick up the phone and kill the connection.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#19

Post by w-ll » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 2:32 AM UTC

Waterluvian wrote: post #7

silisili wrote: post #5

If I'm honest, I kinda miss the AOL all in one approach. Email, news, stocks, chats, IMs, web search, all just there front and center. Easy to use, no trickery, no figuring out what sites or apps to use, as everyone else(generally) was on AOL. I wonder if an idea like that would work again - was just ahead of its time?

What, like google.com ?

What, like Yahoo.com?

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#20

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 2:32 AM UTC

jj999 wrote: post #9

silisili wrote: post #5

If I'm honest, I kinda miss the AOL all in one approach. Email, news, stocks, chats, IMs, web search, all just there front and center. Easy to use, no trickery, no figuring out what sites or apps to use, as everyone else(generally) was on AOL. I wonder if an idea like that would work again - was just ahead of its time?

> Email, news, stocks, chats, IMs, web search, all just there front and center. Yahoo tried to be that, too. Both are now mostly of historical interest.

[deleted]