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AOL Pretends to be the Internet - The History of the Web (thehistoryoftheweb.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by videodrome@lemmy.capebreton.social to c/technology@lemmy.world

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.capebreton.social/post/497698

In 1994, Ted Leonsis was the head of the new media marketing firm he created, Redgate Communications, spun out six years earlier from a CD-ROM based computer shopping business. Redgate dealed in digital media—sometimes called new media—new territory in the marketing world. And he was pretty good at it. That year, he went out to lunch with one his investment bankers, Dan Case. Case mentioned that his brother Steve was working at a small internet company looking to bring internet services to the mainstream. They had only just finished rebranding to a new name, with a new purpose, America Online.

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[–] mPony@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

yeah they should at least mention how allowing America to easily get Online caused a dramatic downturn in the quality of online discussion at the time.

[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

only if you visited those places. no aol users were jumpin to usenet or irc

[–] mPony@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

au contraire, mon frere. There were plenty of AOL users on Usenet, stinking up the place.

[–] PeutMieuxFaire@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Would that be what is referred to as Eternal September? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

I discovered it only a few weeks ago and I am sad to say that 1994-1995 was when I went online for the first time. With an AOL "Free 20 hours access". I undoubtedly contributed to degrade the quality of discussions, not mentioning choking several dial-accesses with the freakinig 50x50 pixels pictures I uploaded on my very first homepage.

Sorry, I'm so sorry…

[–] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

That was Usenet, IRC and BBSs didn't integrate into AOL iirc unless AOL added support for them later, you had to dial into them specifically