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AOL pretends to be the internet

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Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#271

Post by olig15 »

Mezzie wrote: post #145
olig15 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always assumed that ads that told people to search for the product/company were to raise their search ranking (due to relevancy?). But I’ve got no idea if that would actually make a difference or not, or if it is just so people don’t have to type a URL as you said.

The heyday of AOL keywords was before SEO or search engine relevancy was anything that any company cared about. Search engines existed, but this was mostly pre-Google and they were not great. A lot of discovery happened in other ways - the AOL keyword scheme was basically their attempt to tie web discovery to their products so people who left AOL wouldn't know what to do.

Sorry, I should have been clearer. I’m talking about modern ads that you see now. They will often say ‘search for Hilton hotels’ or whatever, rather than the domain. I thought that was to help SEO

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#272

Post by ShadowBanThis01 »

sixstringtheory wrote: post #270
ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You "forgot" to state how Apple controls the Web, or to support any of the other hysteria buried in your self-important, technically unsound rant against electronic expression... which Apple did not invent and does not govern online. You're whining about FTP's malign effects on drawing, sculpture, and dance? Hahaha, seriously? And again, you neglect to establish that Apple is to blame. How about the flourishing of ar…

You should probably look into enjoying some dance, you're wound up really tight.

[flagged]

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#273

Post by bdavbdav »

lproven wrote: post #150
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…

> That idle timeout was pretty important when AOL cost $1/hour Let me guess: are you American? Brit here. Our phonecall connection charges were a lot more than that. The ROTW pays for local calls as well as long-distance. $1/hr would have been great. I paid closer to $1/min for dial-up. We all used OLRs: Offline Readers. An app that dials your service provider, posts all outgoing messages, grabs all new messages into…

I’m sure we fairly quickly (as in fairly quickly after 56k became a thing) had zero call rate ISPs who just charged a small monthly. We used to use FreeUK (eventually taken over by Clara), and had a second line dedicated to it.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#274

Post by oblio »

ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #268
oblio wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The internet is not fine. If you look around 99% of websites are still pushing their apps, especially the big websites.

And have they taken down their sites as a result? Yes, I find those publishers and apps annoying. But how big a deal have they become?

They're slowly boiling the frog if you look at Facebook, Reddit, etc.

Also, part of it is a very long game. Younger generations rarely use websites, they mostly use apps.

It's the same thing as Office and Windows being slowly moved away towards a subscription model: done successfully for Office, still trending that way slowly for Windows, where resistance is SUPER fierce.

Just because the loss is happening over decades, doesn't mean the web is winning.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#275

Post by lproven »

bdavbdav wrote: post #273
lproven wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That idle timeout was pretty important when AOL cost $1/hour Let me guess: are you American? Brit here. Our phonecall connection charges were a lot more than that. The ROTW pays for local calls as well as long-distance. $1/hr would have been great. I paid closer to $1/min for dial-up. We all used OLRs: Offline Readers. An app that dials your service provider, posts all outgoing messages, grabs all new messages into…

I’m sure we fairly quickly (as in fairly quickly after 56k became a thing) had zero call rate ISPs who just charged a small monthly. We used to use FreeUK (eventually taken over by Clara), and had a second line dedicated to it.

Yes, it did come, you're right.

It was about 15 years or so after the BBS boom in the USA, though, which was driven by free local calls.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#276

Post by Anthony-G »

ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #238
Anthony-G wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn’t have thought that there were many people using computers who weren’t already familiar with audio CDs. While most portable players were top-loading, I remember the majority of home stereos having the slide-out tray. I would have thought anyone using computers at the time would also have been familiar with home stereo/hi-fi systems (even if they didn’t own one).

I agree. The cup-holder thing was a joke, not a real claim.

Ah OK. I’ve come across some strange beliefs about computers and other technology so it’s not completely implausible. Poe's law strikes again.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#277

Post by ShadowBanThis01 »

Anthony-G wrote: post #276
ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. The cup-holder thing was a joke, not a real claim.

Ah OK. I’ve come across some strange beliefs about computers and other technology so it’s not completely implausible. Poe's law strikes again.

Hey, that's not to say that NOBODY believed this. Back in the day I was in a programming class with a bunch of non-tech people (at the Accenture training center).

In those days you could impersonate anyone with the Novell networks' "net send" command, because you could enter the originating user ID by hand. So I would find out the number of one of my classmates' workstations and send a message from the admin: "Keyboard unbalanced. Please adjust."

Sure enough, I look over and she's quizzically lifting her keyboard and tilting it around.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#278

Post by ShadowBanThis01 »

oblio wrote: post #274
ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And have they taken down their sites as a result? Yes, I find those publishers and apps annoying. But how big a deal have they become?

They're slowly boiling the frog if you look at Facebook, Reddit, etc. Also, part of it is a very long game. Younger generations rarely use websites, they mostly use apps. It's the same thing as Office and Windows being slowly moved away towards a subscription model: done successfully for Office, still trending that way slowly for Windows, where resistance is SUPER fierce. Just because the loss is happening over decad…

I definitely felt this was happening at some point, but it seemed like it peaked. But, fair enough, maybe I just stopped paying attention.

You should be happy that Reddit just trashed all the apps, then. It would never have occurred to me to look for an app to use Reddit; nor did I ever hear discussion about it.

It seems that people tend to use the same few key applications now: Instagram/TikTok/whatever-flavor-of-the-year-social-media app, messaging, the YouTube app, a browser.

But you're right, in that you do still get hounded to install pointless apps to do a single thing. The other day I needed to download some soccer tickets that were being hosted by TicketMaster. After the TicketMaster-hosted site told me to download them to my wallet but offered no way to do so, the team wanted me to install their own app. Nope.

Another thing that pisses me off is when vendors will make it impossible to do something from A COMPUTER. NO, I am not going to install a goddamned app and dick around on a tiny phone screen when I'm running an event and executing transactions with customers standing in line, Square!

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#279

Post by basch »

sumtechguy wrote: post #259
basch wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Think both of those actions are open camera app?

And then you point the camera app at the QR code, and then click the link that appears over the QR code. Neither Apple nor Android require a QR code reader app.
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