Voting Station

AOL - America Online

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Internet Service Provider

The Resume

    (October 1989- )
    Founded as Qunatum Computer Services
    Quantum Computer Services renamed America Online, Inc. (October 1991)
    CEO: Steve Case (1991-January 2003)
    Merges with Time Warner (December 3, 2002)
    World's Largest ISP
    Q-Link for Commodore (November 1985-1994)
    PC-Link for PC (August 1988-1994)
    AOL - America Online for MAC/Apple II (October 1989- )
    Promenade - IBM PS/1 (June 1990)
    AOL - America Online for DOS (February 1991)
    AOL - America Online for Windows (January 1993)
    Offered internet services (October 30, 1995)
    Acquired GNN - Global Network Navigator and WebCrawler (June 1, 1995)
    Acquired CompuServe Online Network (September 08, 1997)
    Acquired Netscape (November 24, 1998)
    1997 Price: $19.95 per month unlimited
    2006 Price: $23.95 per month unlimited access
    Catch Phrase: 'You Got Mail'

Why AOL - America Online might be annoying:

    It keeps raising prices.
    It was known for busy signals as their subscription base grew, but their phone lines grew very slowly.
    While they were expanding their membership, they refused to keep up with adding modems for access. Only until members threaten to leave did they add modems.
    Its interface is highly graphic and thus it attracts computer idiots.
    It is known for treating their subscribers as computer illiterates, tending to ask for confirmation after you press a button.
    It mass mailed disks and now CDs to everyone, regardless of who owns a computer.
    It ran ads that even made fun of the free CDs, where people would use the colorful CDs to make art projects.
    Every major upgrade offered just one or two major things and the rest are tweaks.
    It is extremely bloated, taking well over 100 megs of hard drive space.
    It continues to use its own non POP3 compatible email client.
    When upgrading, it makes it difficult to remove older versions.
    They sued AT&T Worldnet Service unsuccessfully for trademark infringements (December 1998).
    They prefer to keep their users in their intranet rather than letting them venture on to the internet. Until 1992, they did not offer any internet access and it wasn't until 1995 they offered full internet access.
    In the early days, they were biased in favor of Macintosh over IBM.
    They continue to make it difficult to access newsgroups.
    For the longest time, it had one of the smallest text boxes for sending Email.
    It lagged behind in upgrading technology.
    PC World said: 'America Online 5.0 was an unmitigated disaster for the online giant' (October 31, 2000).
    America Online 5.0 caused a number of law suits because it changed network settings and made it difficult to change them back. It overwrote key Windows files and even trashed some PCs.
    Mark Green told PC World that serious problem occurred in AOL - America Online 6.0 'continually wipes out' all network settings. 'Every time I ran [the software] it went into my network properties and changed not only my external NIC settings, but also the internal NIC settings to obtain a dynamic IP address.' Another 6.0 user noted it deleted TCP/IP and network adapter settings.
    Those who had trouble logging on called it AWOL.
    Those that just don't like it call it A-Hole and their users as AOL A-Holes.

Why AOL - America Online might not be annoying:

    More than half those on the internet use AOL - America Online.
    Although they did not invent instant messaging, they popularized it.
    It uses interesting packaging and eye catching colorful CDs.
    It was the first ISP to use voice recognition.
    It offers more internal content by far than any other ISP.
    It is the ISP to use for masses who have little computer knowledge.
    It gave us the catch phrase 'You Got Mail!'
    AT&T Worldnet Service stole their phrases 'You Have Mail,' 'You've Got Mail,' 'Buddy List' and 'IM' (December 1968).
    It always had the best graphic interface of any ISP.
    It offers a super fast internal email service.
    It expanded service to Canada, France and the UK (1996); Japan (1997) and Australia (1998).
    It offered XM Satellite (April 11, 2005).
    Along with Earthlink, Microsoft and Yahoo!, they joined into a lawsuit against spammers.
    It offers a specific Teen platform called AOL - Red (February 3, 2004) and AOL for Kids (September 29, 2003).
    It offers AOL Latino for spanish speaking subscribers (October 1, 2003).
    It offers AOL at a greatly reduced price for those who have their own broadband connection (March 31, 2003).
    Version Releases
    AOL 1.0 (October 1989)
    AOL 3.0 (July 1, 1996)
    AOL 4.0 (July 30, 1998)
    AOL 5.0 (October 5, 1999)
    AOL 6.0 (October 25, 2000)
    AOL 7.0 (October 16, 2001)
    AOL 8.0 (October 15, 2002)
    AOL 8.0 Plus (March 31, 2003)
    AOL 9.0 Optimized (October 15, 2003)
    AOL 9.0 Security Edition (November 18, 2004)
    Subscriber Base:
    ½ million (December 1993)
    1 million (August 16, 1994)
    2 million (February 21, 1995)
    2½ million (May 3, 1995)
    3 million (July 6, 1995)
    4½ million (December 28, 1995)
    5 million (February 6, 1996)
    9 million (September 2, 1997)
    10 million (November 17, 1997)
    15 million (December 30, 1998)
    20 million (December 17, 1999)
    25 million (October 24, 2000)
    30 million (June 25, 2001)
    35 million (July 24, 2002)

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 50 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 19 Votes: 26.32% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 29 Votes: 62.07% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 9 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 20 Votes: 55.00% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 33 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 72 Votes: 59.72% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 32 Votes: 65.62% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 111 Votes: 75.68% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 55 Votes: 65.45% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 122 Votes: 72.95% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 59 Votes: 64.41% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 231 Votes: 77.06% Annoying
    In 2006, Out of 289 Votes: 74.74% Annoying
    In 2005, Out of 610 Votes: 69.67% Annoying