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America Online Changes Name to AOL
Mon Apr 3, 2006 7:17 PM EDT
DULLES, VA. — It's official: America Online Inc. is now known simply as AOL. In an expected move, Time Warner Inc.'s Internet unit said Monday it has renamed itself; it also changed from being a corporation to a limited liability company.
"Our company long ago accomplished the mission implied by our old name. We literally got America online," said Jon Miller, chairman and chief executive of AOL LLC. "Our new corporate identity better reflects our expanded mission — to make everyone's online experience better."
He added that consumers already know the service by its initials.
AOL formed as Quantum Computer Services in 1985 and started offering the AOL online service in 1989, beginning with Apple Computer Inc.'s systems. The company changed its name to America Online Inc. in 1991.
The company merged with Time Warner Inc. in 2001 to form AOL Time Warner Inc., but as the Internet access business declined, the parent company dropped AOL from its name and became once again just Time Warner Inc.
AOL had 19.5 million U.S. subscribers as of Dec. 31, a 27 percent drop from its peak of 26.7 million in September 2002. Over the past year, AOL has been increasingly shifting its efforts at making articles, video and other materials available for free through its ad-supported sites.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 | AOL Introduces New Mobile Services | PC World | Mon Apr 3 | 0 |
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Comments:
I think soon enough they will be called: AIM
Heaven forbid- I really can't wait for AIM to just die out. When google talk came out, allowing PC users to talk with iChat (half of my family uses macs) I finally was able to uninstall it and will never reinstall it again. It was so full of annoying ads and spyware that I dreaded having to install it on any new computers just to talk to my family.
On second thought, I really can't wait for AOL to just die out as well- I used to make phone calls trying to sell their useless software and books (please don't hate me- I was desperate for a job), and I found that about half of their "customers" were simply people who were gullible enough to try out the free trial and ended up paying a lot of money when they forgot to call and cancel their account.
Amen!
When googletalk came out i sent an email to everyone on my buddy list that i was switching to Jabber and would no longer log into AOLIM. I maintain 2 names: 1 on jabber.org and 1 on gmail.com ... eventually i plan on firing up my own jabber server and just using my one address to handle all my instant messaging and email.
Jabber is the way too go, unfortunately some of the coolw hiz-bang things that AOL has don't work over jabber (audio/video chats, file transfer can be shaky sometimes).
A couple people haven't made the switch over to Jabber, but oh well. Don't really care. if i need to talk to them I can shoot them an email.
AOL scams the hell out of their customers. I've been in the telemarketing business the past two years and boy have I learned a thing or two about AOL and other companies...
it's funny how you can learn things about "the other side" when in telemarketing. I've had similar experiences, and it's been years since I last had a telemarketing job :)