What Happened to America Online? [LGR Tech Tales]

I loved this one. I remember being super impressed by AOL when I was wee, and as I got older, hating it a lot. I played Slingo a bunch and hung out in the forums.

evistre

I gotta admit, I didn't get to use AOL personally (though admittedly probably because I wasn't old enough to use computers around its heyday). Though we did have a laugh with the CDs we kept getting from them (I don't know if you'll find this funny or not): basically, we'd pop the CD in the microwave to "check it for viruses". But still, I certainly remember commercials about it and the keywords they'd talk about on stuff from movies to cartoons (mostly cartoons).

Devon the Rogue Supreme

I have no experience with Imagination Network, so a video is rather unlikely at this point. But I find it fascinating, and have several of the disks for it!

LGR

Haha, haven't seen that since it came out. I should do the same.

LGR

I plan to cover them sometime! Prodigy was my very first exposure to an online service as a kid, it was great.

LGR

Geocities is dead at least, but it baffles me how MySpace is still a thing

LGR

Oh yeah, I was excited to make this one right after Quantum Link was done since I was researching both of these stories at the same time!

LGR

Thanks very much!

LGR

Clint, this might be your best Tech Tales yet. It's far and away my favorite series that you do, and this two part retrospective on QuantumLink/America Online is among the best it has to offer. Keep doing this level of work, Clint, and I can keep being proud to back it. Great job!

James M.

Awesome video! I was so excited to see that this was done so soon after the Quantum link episode- and while making LGR foods content too! Keep it up, Clint ;-)

Gary DiFiore-Ridolph

Yahoo + AOL.... Wow, why not add myspace and geocities to that? Together they'll have at least 10 customers!

Great video! I was a Prodigy user in the 90s and I hope down the line, there might be a Tech Tales about their service!

Steve Martin

Oddly enough I want to watch "You've Got Mail" and laugh at how outdated it is now.

Justin Dotson

Thanks a lot, Ron! This one has been in the works for ages now, easily the most I've put into any one video so far.

LGR

Wow, this one must have taken you weeks and maybe months to put together. Documentary quality here. I think there will be a whole new segment of viewers introduced to your channel. To think that you researched all of this, wrote it, narrated it, edited it and then uploaded it all without a team behind you is quite phenomenal.

Ron

All the nostalgia in this video, for real. AOL was a big part of growing up in the 90s, at least for me! That login screen and accompanying dial-up noises (and "You've got mail!") will be forever burned in my memory. I know I jumped ship to just using an non-AOL browser (probably IE) in the early 2000s, when we got broadband. I think my mom uses AOL still for some odd reason, and now it looks so freaking different from the old days. BTW, I liked the blink-and-miss-it reference to your goofing around on AOL video where that lady wanted you to light her cigarette, haha :D

Lindsay Michelle

Kinda got used to the frequent CDs in the mail when I was a kid, at the time it seemed normal for some reason.

Leif

s/bypass to/bypass the/; Why is there no edit button? -.-

BastetFurry

My first analogue Flatrate was from AOL, for if i recall correctly ~89 Deutsche Mark a month. My dad paid for it and i didn't ask. :) The trick to bypass to automatic idle logoff was starting an endless ping to some random service, by the way.

BastetFurry

Agreed, that should be in there. Will be adding it to the next draft.

LGR

would only use AOL for recreation . Compuserve was where any serious homework and such got done. Compuserve was serious business, while AOL was graphical junk (not to say i didn't like AOL, since i BEGGED my parents to get it because everyone else was.)

Reed Hansen

Love these tech tales. Gotta say, I had both AOL and Compuserve (the latter only on OS/2 for that matter), and I'

Reed Hansen

as far as I'm concerned, AOL stopped existing after 2004

mavrick

Excellent!

Awesome work with this episode. I'm still a little in awe that they're still around, at least in some sense (unlike many of the other firms who've had the Tech Tales treatment).

Rob Caporetto

And in hindsight, I don't think calling it America Online was helping them internationally, and considering the internet was global, I'm not surprised they rebranded to AOL. But by then it was too late.

Ant Field

My memories of AOL (in Australia back in the 90's) was that it was a part of the installing windows routine, on the first boot to desktop, uninstalling the damn thing. Exactly as you said, dial up was usually bundled with your phone and TV, so why would you pay extra on top to use another service? MSN Messenger was king in Australia. AOL was just an annoying, redundant desktop icon.

Ant Field

This was fun to watch! So interesting and now I'm keen to here more about the start of MSN and Internet Explorer. Ah Netscape Navigator. That made me nostalgic. And that that running man logo. So iconic!

Sarah

Why no mention of the overabundance of "AOL Keyword:(thing)"? Geez. Back in the day when every other commercial mentioned it... much like Facebook, Twitter, Etc. are named today.

Vi Watch

I remember using AOL in the late 90s, I remember downloading games that were only a few MB took hours to download. But there were some good memories, I met a friend of mine through AOL.

Douglas Holmes

I remember doing AOL/Prodigy, and even a bit of a personal favorite, Sierra's Imagination Network. Those were exciting times since the idea of connecting to an entire network of content was so fresh. Worrying about tying up the phone line or going over usage hours, did suck, though. Speaking of Sierra's Imagination Network, have you considered coverage that as a topic? It felt ahead of its time (even if it was beaten by other services), and had that Sierra charm.

Purple Tentacle

Speaking of Bebo, a DK history book I have called "Take Me Back" (published in 2008) actually features a page telling the story of Napolen Bonaparte as a Bebo account: <a href="http://m.imgur.com/Kf0S8mH" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://m.imgur.com/Kf0S8mH</a>

Harry Thornton

I was going to work on my next video. Thanks a lot dude 😜

Retail Archaeology

Life isnt perfect, I guess we just wait. Watching it now, my time was 2300 MST Arizona time when it started for me

Michael Flores

When you get the push notification &amp; click on the video too fast and get "We're still processing this video" *sigh* 😜

DGDW (Derek G. Weber)

Tuesday night treat :D

avfusion