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I thought I'd never ever download an AOL software after ditching it for Prodigy 10 years ago, but I just downloaded the Security Edition just to try it out. All of the memories from 10 years ago is coming back, with the familiar "Welcome" and "you got mail!" sounds.
From the computer geek standpoint, I don't even know why I downloaded it in the first place. But it is free, and its using my existing DSL connection, but it did try to install a toolbar, so I'll scan my computer for any rogue programs.
From the computer user standpoint, it offers a majority of services I use: email, easy catorization of topics, and other features that I have yet to explore. If I can download this as an executable, then maybe other people might want to install this on their computers (provided they have broadband).
Stepping up the chase for online advertising dollars, AOL will give away e-mail accounts and software now available only to its paying customers in a strategy shift likely to accelerate the decline in its core Internet access business.
The decision, announced Wednesday by AOL parent Time Warner Inc., removes the few remaining reasons for AOL subscribers to keep paying when they already have high-speed Internet access through a cable or phone company.
"We've listened to our customers, and many of them want to keep using these AOL products when they migrate to broadband — but not pay extra for them," said Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner's president and chief operating officer.
The move marks the end of an era for a company that grew rapidly in the 1990s by making it easy to connect online, giving millions of Americans their first taste of e-mail, the Web and instant messaging through discs that continually arrived unsolicited in mailboxes.
"This is the final goodbye to the days when AOL was the king of the Internet," said Jeff Lanctot, general manager of aQuantive Inc.'s Avenue A/Razorfish, an online advertising agency that places some ads on AOL sites. "They now know they are the underdog."
AOL will still offer its dial-up accounts at $26 a month for unlimited use, but the company no longer will aggressively market the service. That's likely to mean the end of promotional CDs and an unspecified number of job cuts in marketing and customer service.
The changes are to fully take effect in early September.
Subscribers who dropped AOL within the past two years will be able to reclaim their old AOL.com e-mail addresses.
AOL hopes that by making services free, it can draw Internet users to its ad-supported Web sites and keep them from defecting to Yahoo Inc., Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., all of which have offered free e-mail for years.
The decision, announced Wednesday by AOL parent Time Warner Inc., removes the few remaining reasons for AOL subscribers to keep paying when they already have high-speed Internet access through a cable or phone company.
"We've listened to our customers, and many of them want to keep using these AOL products when they migrate to broadband — but not pay extra for them," said Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner's president and chief operating officer.
The move marks the end of an era for a company that grew rapidly in the 1990s by making it easy to connect online, giving millions of Americans their first taste of e-mail, the Web and instant messaging through discs that continually arrived unsolicited in mailboxes.
"This is the final goodbye to the days when AOL was the king of the Internet," said Jeff Lanctot, general manager of aQuantive Inc.'s Avenue A/Razorfish, an online advertising agency that places some ads on AOL sites. "They now know they are the underdog."
AOL will still offer its dial-up accounts at $26 a month for unlimited use, but the company no longer will aggressively market the service. That's likely to mean the end of promotional CDs and an unspecified number of job cuts in marketing and customer service.
The changes are to fully take effect in early September.
Subscribers who dropped AOL within the past two years will be able to reclaim their old AOL.com e-mail addresses.
AOL hopes that by making services free, it can draw Internet users to its ad-supported Web sites and keep them from defecting to Yahoo Inc., Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., all of which have offered free e-mail for years.
From the computer geek standpoint, I don't even know why I downloaded it in the first place. But it is free, and its using my existing DSL connection, but it did try to install a toolbar, so I'll scan my computer for any rogue programs.
From the computer user standpoint, it offers a majority of services I use: email, easy catorization of topics, and other features that I have yet to explore. If I can download this as an executable, then maybe other people might want to install this on their computers (provided they have broadband).