Aol?

[jess1]

Hi Ya

Whats the score with AOL... I did post this in another thread but may be more appropriate here.... Disables user’s internet settings rendering it useless.
AOL keep their users within their AOL Shell, I know its not like 180 et al and works differently, but I cant escape the fact that users do not know what it does to their PC.
AOL offers users a controlled environment experience but is spy ware as they are able to use “smart adds” serving up what is most searched for.
Its an odd one.

[stevesa]

Must admit i am having a spat with them as well at the moment---if you use their UK search, then it filters out 90% of all the UK results, even tho its a Google feed, i'm well miffed as i am currently no1 for a very highly searched term in Googlethats gets me 1000's of uniques a day, and they don't want to even admit that they are filtering results??? whats up, panicking about loosing the user to "normal internet experience"????

Steve

[3wdl]

AOL have always been a bit of a funny one in terms of their software, and I don't really see it changing anytime soon tbh.

When I worked in Technical Support for an ISP a majority of calls where from AOL users who could not connect to our network due to the changes that their software had made to the computer.

I believe that nowdays they market their product around the "enhanced security features" and the "safe internet" that they feel they are able to offer, it's all a crock of .... though INVHO.

Saying all that, I don't really feel that the software is unethical or could be classed as spyware, and it does appeal to a certain amount of first time internet users.

[Bod]

Im with AOL and the amount of problems over the years is bad.

First of all networking, we had a perfect network set up via a network card, AOL did an upgrade it stopped it working.

AOL also blocked port 25 for the email so no emails woudl go through there servers via Outlook.

In the last week Norton have had to issue an download as AOL was stopped from logging on the net, it said that upon signing online it stopped me as there was a worm, but this worm was me :eek:

I had to turn off my firewall delete a file ( or at least turn it off as well) and then download a symatic file from the website, i also had to download a AOL file.....

Now i get certain pop ups from win something or other and other trying to sell me what i had working fine in the first place.

So why dont i change ISP, well I am going to but not until i move as i have heard AOL not releasing lines to other broadband companies, so woudl also need to change home phone too.

I dont like the AOL software and dont even use the email software they provide as it crap.

[matbennett]

AOL have always been a PITA pitching their version of the web like it is what the rest of us see. Oh well.. it must be getting better. There was a time when they did not support GIFs ( I kid you not!)

[renegade]

AOL is a major PITA for all companies that run internet services - it's one rule for everyone apart from AOL - I've had to phone the US to get one of our domains (nothing to do with AOL and hosted in the UK) able to send email to AOL users, it's a real one-off. Years ago if you installed it on a PC that was it - you couldn't get rid of it without a reformat, dunno if that's improved - I steer well clear of AOL and customer support these days!

[Lee_Owen]

Everyone knows what AOL stands for. A***h**e

It's a package aimed at the naive internet first time user who is sold on the idea that the internet is all secure and bundled and hassle free. Where the truth is far simpler, aol will one day find most people have escaped to other services and they will have to completely remodel their business. Didn't Time Warner wish they'd never bought them out?

Aol also bought that other brilliant piece of internet history, netscape, what an horrible little browser that was.

aol, I wouldn't even promote them. And if you do know anyone naive enough to still be with their company after two months, enlighten them please, the internet is a lot more free without aol. The times I have to tell people how to open a new browser window, my second advice is, leave aol.

As for spyware, wouldn't know but I should think aol would do well in china and be approved by their 'government'. Still I know why an affiliate would promote them, two sales for the price of one haha "dear email subscriber, here's an article on aol... have you seen the light?" Ching ching.

On the same tangent as aol though, Telewest's recent freebie PC Guard changes settings also or rather the defaults don't appear to be affiliate friendly and are a bugger to change.

[3wdl]

Originally Posted by Lee_Owen Aol also bought that other brilliant piece of internet history, netscape, what an horrible little browser that was.

That is taking things a little too far Netscape was, for a long time, a very popular and very good browser.

Microsoft came along and forced IE on the market & some may say that it destroyed the popularity of Netscape, but don't forget that in 1998 Netscape went "open-source" and Mozilla was created.

And here we are today - Mozilla has some excellent applications built on the Netscape framework - Firefox and Thunderbird are a good example of this and Firefox is probaly the first browser that has realisticly challenged IE in the browser market.

Horrible little browser indeed!

[kier]

I once came home and caught my younger brother trying to download the aol installer package. I nearly had a heart attack. Turned out the fool wanted to chat with his mates via AOL IM but didnt realise you could download it separately. I put at stop to that one quick snap!