Allen

Thanks!

1. I know it is fun to throw stones at AOL these days (and before), but I thought I’d share my own quite positive experience.

I am a Charter AOL subscriber, and have been paying them monthly at their “Bring Your Own ISP” rate for several years now. (I thought it was pretty innovative of them to offer this option quite a while ago.) When I learned of the newest rate — $zero — for the access I needed, I went to AOL.com, logged in, and went to “My Account info”. There was a button for “Speak with an Account Rep”, which brought up a chat window. Even though this was no more than 8 hours after the announcement, he knew what I wanted to do, and was able, after verifying my identity through a series of questions, to move me to the “no fee” category.

Hopefully the change will go through as promised, but meanwhile I thought you’d like to know they are not total losers over at AOL.

2. This comment always leave me wondering if you’ve not forgotten the one
best place: a registrar.

See I believe businesses with an aol.com address are still using it simply because it is very, very difficult to switch. You must tell the world that your email has changed and it takes *years* to get that point across because you may not know how many contacts you have. Consider when you’ve printed a @aol.com address in your user guide and literature for a few years. How do you let your customer know that the address has changed?

Somehow I believe that Gmail will go down the same path as AOL… meaning it will no longer be this hot property with which you absolutely want to associate yourself with. Something new and better will have emerged. We’ve seen it at least a dozen times since you wrote that book on email

For the last few years, I’ve always encouraged my friends to get a domain name of their own. It’s inexpensive and it’s the only guarantee that you can switch email provider without a glitch.

3. I can tell you why some people might really like AOL (especially for free). I believe you will find that is will basically act as an anonymous proxy for you… i.e.: your websurfing will show various AOL IP addresses, not your providers ISP. It won’t raise any red flags…

4. AOL’s declining market share is due not to the bloatware, the dial-up or the content, it’s because we’re seeing fewer and fewer net tourists. The Net Natives (you, me and the people who read your newsletter) might be dismissive of the whole AOL experience, but the reality is that for people who can’t make a new folder on their computer, for people who don’t really know what the internet is all about, AOL is a big Double-Decker Tour Bus loaded with gawkers and blocking the way of the locals. The funny thing is that some people get off the bus and they even become net natives themselves, and stare back at the bus in disdain just like you. But AOL serves a purpose.

5. More importantly, why is this not considered an act of spyware? It’s arguably installation of software without notice and consent?

> The AOLfree universe is completely free of parental controls.

Not just AOL, but MSN and Yahoo! as well. The protocols have been reverse engineered and put into open source clients, the variability across clients w/r/t features and controls is staggering.

6. I remember back in the early-mid 90s when mass distributed their diskettes (and then CDs) the only thing their crap was good for back then was for glass and bottle coasters and mini-freezbee. They never changed one iota — it’s a weird thing i noticed about companies in this space, they never change along the way.