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AOL pretends to be the internet

thehistoryoftheweb.com

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Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#171

Post by jehb »

firesteelrain wrote: post #131
doublerabbit wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> AOL keyword ! And we've gone full circle. We have the same today, just in a form of a #tag.

AOL keywords were shortcuts to URLs like bit.ly right?

They could be, but often they launched something on-platform in AOL's walled garden that could not be accessed by a web browser. Basically, windows inside of the AOL application. Screenshots would explain better than I can but I'm having trouble finding a good one. Maybe: https://i.insider.com/53f27f8069bedd317d1c5fb5?width=1200

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#173

Post by grishka »

smcl wrote: post #90
jandrese wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That idle timeout was pretty important when AOL cost $1/hour (and it was the cheap service! Prodigy, Compuserve, and especially GEnie were more expensive!). Leaving it connected overnight would get you grounded in a hurry when that AOL bill came in the next month. It was really no wonder that all of those services basically collapsed once dial up ISPs with flat (and low!) monthly fees started appearing. $10 for unlim…

I imagine everyone who was a kid during the dial-up times has a horror story of being confronted with an enormous phone bill by their parents. I remember mine going mental at me for costing us £40 one month (normal service was iirc ~£10)

Nope, I don't. We mostly used prepaid internet service and I also had some very strict computer use allowances.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#174

Post by ChoGGi »

el_oni wrote: post #166
ydnaclementine wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible to create your own AOL keywords in firefox by setting the `keyword` field in `Manage Bookmarks`. Bookmark hackernews, set the keyword to `hn`, then all you have to do in the address bar is `hn ` and you're here.

well this changes things. Thanks for the tip!

If you replace part of the URL with %s then you can use a keyword? as part of the URL.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#175

Post by JKCalhoun »

grose wrote: post #104

Remember AOL keywords? They basically had their own private DNS alternative. Every commercial on TV for a website would say "AOL keyword !" instead of the actual URL. I guess it was a lot less scary for your average internet user to type in "nick" instead of " http://www.nick.com ". I feel like we still kind of have the "URLs are hard" problem. I've noticed a lot of ads in Japan tell the users to search (presumably G…

> I feel like we still kind of have the "URLs are hard" problem.

QR codes.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#176

Post by basch »

sumtechguy wrote: post #164
flangola7 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those numbers have to be very low now that we are post 2020.

Tech changes decently quickly so sometimes it is easy to just stick with what you know. Today I was standing in my driveway trying to open the garage door with my phone. After about a min of going thru random menus and whatever I said 'whatever' and just went thru the house and pushed the button. I will figure it out when I am not in a rush. Also you hand me a QR code I am going to be a little annoyed but also gratef…

On iPhones you swipe right from the Lock Screen. Android has a shortcut to double tap the power button.

I don’t know if I ever go searching for an app to open a QR code.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#178

Post by basch »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #161
flangola7 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those numbers have to be very low now that we are post 2020.

I am an it professional. I've used qr codes maybe... 6 times, ever? With probably 50% success rate before I give up. I know for a fact that literally nobody else in my in law family of middle class Canadians has ever used a single one. Anecdata of course, but if we're sharing assumptions... :-)

If you were out at all during / after Covid, restaurant menus were all QR codes on tables around me.

They are on posters all over. Commonly used for sign-ups and event entrance. It’s a mid assumption to think they are more popular in tech circles, I actually think the reverse is true.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#179

Post by washadjeffmad »

acjohnson55 wrote: post #162

I remember having AOL back in the very early web days, just after they added the browser. My dad had an "Internet for Dummies" book, which had a directory of websites to try. I, as maybe a 10 year old, could not properly type all the characters in the URL correctly and I gave up on this so-called World Wide Web. It seemed way worse than AOL-proper. Also, at that time, AOL had a much richer user experience than most o…

For many that first went online via AOL, it was revelatory that the web was still accessible even if you didn't use the AOL browser. Most people didn't know what to do with it outside of that, but I suppose that's not any different from today with what Google and Apple are doing with their platforms and apps.

Nothing new under the sun, eh?

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