Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When was AOL introduced?
AOL was one of the early pioneers of the Internet in the mid-1990s, and the most recognized brand on the web in the United States. It originally provided a dial-up service to millions of Americans, as well as providing a web portal, e-mail, instant messaging and later a web browser following its purchase of Netscape. In 2001, at the height of its popularity, it purchased the media conglomerate Time Warner in the largest merger in U.S. history. AOL rapidly declined thereafter, partly due to the decline of dial-up and rise of broadband.[3] AOL was eventually spun off from Time Warner in 2009, with Tim Armstrong appointed the new CEO. Under his leadership, the company invested in media brands and advertising technologies.
In 2004, along with the launch of AOL 9.0 Optimized, AOL also made available the option of personalized greetings which would enable the user to hear his or her name while accessing basic functions and mail alerts, or while logging in or out. In 2005, AOL broadcast the Live 8 concert live over the Internet, and thousands of users downloaded clips of the concert over the following months.[30] In late 2005, AOL released AOL Safety & Security Center, a bundle of McAfee Antivirus, CA anti-spyware, and proprietary firewall and phishing protection software.[31] News reports in late 2005 identified companies such as Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google as candidates for turning AOL into a joint venture.[32] Those plans were abandoned when it was revealed on December 20, 2005 that Google would purchase a 5% share of AOL for $1billion.
Netscape 7.0 (codenamed "Mach Five" and based on Mozilla 1.0.1) was released in August 2002 was a direct continuation of Netscape 6 with very similar components. It picked up a few users, but was still very much a minority browser, one of the problems being that Mozilla itself was a worthy adversary. In addition, AOL had decided to deactivate Mozilla's popup-blocker functionality in Netscape 7.0, which created an outrage in the community. In response to the complaints, AOL integrated the pop-up blocker into Netscape 7.01. In addition, Netscape introduced a new AOL-free-version (without the usual AOL addons) of the browser suite. Netscape 7.1 (codenamed "Buffy" and based on Mozilla 1.4) was released in June 2003.
Official online information as to when AOL Hometown started out is scarce. "whois.pho.to" gives a registation date of "before Aug-1996" for the domain of "hometown.aol.co.uk", though that probably relates to the basic AOL domain itself as the "domain name" in the registration is given as "aol.co.uk". First mention of AOL Hometown in a Google Scholar publication dates from 2000, which is "Quick Guide to You'Ve Got Pictures, Aol Exclusive Version" by D. Peal. Prior to that, AOL Hometown was mentioned in a "Deseret News" article on September 30, 1999.
In a July 2, 2001 article, "BusinessWeek" reporter Amy Borrus wrote that Schuler, “deserves just as much credit for AOL's explosive success” as then AOL Time Warner Inc. Chairman Steve Case or co-Chief Operating Officer Robert Pittman. The reporter pointed to the three years Schuler spent running AOL's Interactive Services group, “putting his stamp on much of the design that makes it so simple to use and features that make it so popular with families.” Schuler's objective of converging a souped-up version of AOL's online distribution platform with Time Warner's various media outlets hit several roadblocks one being reluctance on the part of cable companies to open up their network to Internet service providers such as AOL. Likewise, internal dissent over the best ways to merge AOL's distribution channels with Time Warner's more traditional media content plagued the online unit. Against this backdrop, AOL was struggling with declining advertising sales due to an economic downturn as well as a leveling out of its still dial-up driven subscriber growth. The unit took a further hit when its parent was forced to restate its earnings forecast in January 2002, in part due to the slowdown in AOL's business. Schuler stepped down as head of the unit in April 2002, taking over a newly created digital development unit charged with overseeing the formation of interactive digital products and services for all of AOL Time Warner. He officially resigned from AOL-Time Warner in 2003.
The Netscape Navigator name returned in 2007 when AOL announced version 9 of the Netscape series of browsers, Netscape Navigator 9. On 28 December 2007, AOL canceled its development but continued supporting the web browser with security updates until 1 March 2008. AOL allows downloading of archived versions of the Netscape Navigator web browser family. AOL maintains the Netscape website as an Internet portal.
On June 13, 2006, Vincent Ferrari documented his account cancellation phone call in a blog post,[137] stating he had switched to broadband years earlier. In the recorded phone call, the AOL representative refused to cancel the account unless the 30-year-old Ferrari explained why AOL hours were still being recorded on it. Ferrari insisted that AOL software was not even installed on the computer. When Ferrari demanded that the account be canceled regardless, the AOL representative asked to speak with Ferrari's father, for whom the account had been set up. The conversation was aired on CNBC. When CNBC reporters tried to have an account on AOL cancelled, they were hung up on immediately and it ultimately took more than 45 minutes to cancel the account.[138]
In January 2008, AOL introduced experimental XMPP support for its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) service, allowing AIM users to communicate using XMPP. However, in March 2008, this service was discontinued. As of May 2011, AOL offers limited XMPP support.
America Online introduced instant messaging for its membership in 1996 and included a limited number of "buddy icons," picking up on the avatar idea from PC games. When AOL later introduced the free version of its messenger, AIM, for use by anyone on the Internet, the number of icons offered grew to be more than 1,000 and the use of them grew exponentially, becoming a hallmark feature of instant messaging. In 2002, AOL introduced "Super Buddies," 3D animated icons that talked to users as they typed messages and read messages. The term Avatar began to replace the moniker of "buddy icon" as 3D customizable icons became known to its users from the mainstream popularity of PC Games. Yahoo's instant messenger was the first to adopt the term "avatar" for its icons. Today, many other instant-messaging services support the use of avatars.
Online, Norwood was introduced as the LAUNCHcast "Artist of the Month" for July 2004. The promotion included exclusive interviews and performances as well as contests to win live video chats with Norwood. The "Talk About Our Love" online campaign kicked off with an AOL "First Listen" premiere, and Norwood was AOL's "Artist of the Month" for June 2004. Her Sessions@AOL performance debuted on the service in July 2004.
In October,1985, they introduced GEnie, an online community similar to CompuServe and AOL. But with the rise of the internet, their failure to provide email service until 1993, refusal by management to lease additional mainframes to support the service when it became popular, the extremely slow speed of the Mark III network, the lack of an internet portal, their decision not to develop a graphical user interface, and competition from ISPs, CompuServe, and AOL; GEnie ended on the last day of the millenium. Mark III service and GEIS itself soon followed.
AOL Seed was an open content submission website and platform operated by AOL from 2009 to 2012, when it was closed. Writers and photographers were able to submit their work, and then get paid for each work submitted. The work was then circulated throughout AOL's network of websites . It was run by Saul Hansell, a former technology reporter for "The New York Times".
In May 1999, Kelly Hallisey and Brian Williams, two former Community Leaders, filed a class action lawsuit against AOL, claiming that AOL volunteers performed work equivalent to employees and thus should be compensated according to the Fair Labor Standards Act. The plaintiffs argued that the Community Leader position required a significant amount of effort and detail to qualify the position as having an "employee relationship" with AOL. The plaintiffs specifically demonstrated how Community Leaders had to undergo a thorough, 3-month training program and were required to file timecards for shifts, work at least four hours per week, and submit detailed reports outlining their work activity during each shift. When AOL first started the program it charged for access to its services by the hour, thus Community Leaders, i.e. those who were heavy Internet users saved hundreds of dollars each month. This fact actually hurt AOL when the lawsuit began, however, as the reception of benefits (along with whether the work is full-time and displaces regular employees) is a factor that helps the Department of Labor determine if a volunteer should actually be paid. The U.S. Department of Labor investigated the report, but came to no conclusions, officially closing the investigation in 2001. In response to the investigation, AOL began drastically reducing volunteer responsibilities. By 2000, nearly all Community Leaders had lost content-editing rights and no longer provided customer service or technical support to AOL customers. Additionally, in many AOL forums, Community Leader supervisors became more lax about paperwork and shift hours.
On January 25, 2016, AOL expanded its ONE platform by introducing ONE by AOL: Publishers, which combines six previously separate technologies to offer various publisher capabilities such as customizing video players, offering premium ad experience to boost visibility, and generating large video libraries.[103] The announcement was made in tandem with AOL's acquisition of AlephD, a Paris-based startup focused on publisher analytics of ad price tracking based on historical data.[104] AOL announced AlephD would be a part of the ONE by AOL: Publishers platform.[105]
Prior to mid-2005, AOL used online volunteers called Community Leaders, or CLs, to monitor chatrooms, message boards, and libraries. AOL's use of remote volunteers dated back to the establishment of its Quantum Link service in 1985. Most content maintenance was performed by partner and internal employees. Community leaders were recruited for some content design and maintenance, for which they used a proprietary language and interface called RAINMAN. Other community leaders hosted chat rooms and provided online help. During the time that AOL customers paid by the hour, chat room hosts were compensated in free online time for each hour they worked, though any banked hours became worthless once fixed-rate payment was introduced.
When AOL gave clients access to Usenet in 1993, they hid at least one newsgroup in standard list view: alt.aol-sucks. AOL did list the newsgroup in the alternative description view, but changed the description to "Flames and complaints about America Online". With AOL clients swarming Usenet newsgroups, the old, existing user base started to develop a strong distaste for both AOL and its clients, referring to the new state of affairs as Eternal September.[147]
CompuServe Information Services was then positioned as the value market-provider for several million customers, as part of the AOL Web Products Group. Recent U.S. versions of the CompuServe client software — essentially an enhanced Web browser — use the Gecko layout engine (developed for Mozilla) within a derivative of the AOL client and using the AOL dialup network. The previous CompuServe service offering, re-branded as "CompuServe Classic", remains available in the US and also in other countries where CompuServe 2000 is not offered, such as the UK. In Germany, CompuServe 2000 was introduced in 1999 and withdrawn in 2001 because of failure on the German market, but the CompuServe Classic service also remains available. However, since then CompuServe Germany has introduced its own products for dialup and DSL internet access, and its own client software (called "CompuServe 4.5 light").
Lync Server also enables organizations to interoperate with four external IM services: AOL Instant Messenger, Microsoft Messenger service, Yahoo! Messenger, and Google Talk. PIC was first introduced with Service Pack 1 for Live Communications Server 2005, PIC is licensed separately for Yahoo, but is free for AOL and Messenger service for customers with Software Assurance. Microsoft announced that effective 30 June 2014, they will no longer support PIC connectivity to AOL/AIM
At one time, most AOL users had an online "profile" hosted by the AOL Hometown service. When AOL Hometown was discontinued, users had to create a new profile on Bebo. This was an unsuccessful attempt to create a social network that would compete with Facebook. When the value of Bebo decreased to a tiny fraction of the $850 million AOL paid for it, users were forced to recreate their profiles yet again, on a new service called AOL Lifestream.
On November 18, 2002, AOL introduced Broadband Radio@AOL. Broadband Radio@AOL was built into the AOL 8.0 software, and was the first AOL Radio offering based on the AOL streaming technology Ultravox. By 2003, AOL had migrated most of its AOL Radio products to Ultravox. It was released in the UK on October 20, 2003.
When NaviSoft was acquired by America Online in 1994, Cole became an AOL officer. At America Online, Cole initially was president of AOL’s Internet Services Company then president of AOL New Enterprises group. He held operating responsibility for AOL International, AOL Enterprises, Digital City and AOL corporate development.
Boe also played an instrumental role in a number of high-profile matters during the 1990s, including the massive litigation that resulted from the famous AOL Access Crisis of 1996 and 1997, settlements with State Attorneys’ Generals over marketing practices. He was instrumental in helping AOL gain regulatory approval for the acquisitions of Compuserve in 1997, Netscape Communications Corporation in 1998 and Time Warner in 2000. After the AOL-Time Warner merger closed in 2001, Boe was named AOL's General Counsel. In 2001, on behalf of Netscape, Boe filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in connection with the famous Browser Wars. Microsoft was eventually forced to pay more than $750 million to settle the lawsuit. In 2006, in the wake of the AOL search data scandal, Boe was asked by AOL CEO Jon Miller to lead a task force, along with Ted Leonsis, to investigate the matter and provide recommendations on improving AOL privacy policies. The recommendations of the task force led to Boe being named Executive Vice President for Consumer Advocacy at AOL in October 2006, when he stepped down as General Counsel of the company.
AOL Video lost its rights to the Time Warner library when AOL Time Warner broke apart in 2009 to form AOL, Time Warner, and Time Warner Cable. By the time AOL had purchased "The Huffington Post" in 2011, AOL Video had been dissolved. Links to the service now redirect to Huffington Post's TV section, which contains no archival video.
AOL charged its users an hourly fee until December 1996,[20] when the company changed to a flat monthly rate of $19.95.[7] During this time, AOL connections would be flooded with users trying to get on, and many canceled their accounts due to constant busy signals. A commercial featuring Steve Case telling people AOL was working day and night to fix the problem was made. Within three years, AOL's user base grew to 10 million people. In 1995 AOL was headquartered at 8619 Westwood Center Drive in the Tysons Corner CDP in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia,[21][22] near the Town of Vienna.[23]
Netscape 7.0 (based on Mozilla 1.0.1) was released in August 2002 as a direct continuation of Netscape 6 with very similar components. It picked up a few users, but was still very much a minority browser. It did, however, come with the popular Radio@Netscape Internet radio client. AOL had decided to deactivate Mozilla's popup-blocker functionality in Netscape 7.0, which created an outrage in the community. AOL reversed the decision and allowed Netscape to reinstate the popup-blocker for Netscape 7.01. Netscape also introduced a new AOL-free-version (without the usual AOL add-ons) of the browser suite. Netscape 7.1 (codenamed "Buffy" and based on Mozilla 1.4) was released in June 2003.