AOL

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AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. , originally known as America Online , and distributed as Aol. ) is a web portal and online service provider based in New York. This is a brand marketed by Sumpah, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications. AOL was one of the earliest Internet pioneers in the mid-1990s, and the most recognizable brand on the web in the United States. It originally provided dial-up services to millions of Americans, as well as providing web portals, email, instant messaging and then web browsers after the purchase of Netscape. At the height of his popularity, he bought the Time Warner media conglomerate in the largest merger in US history. AOL quickly declined thereafter, partly due to decreased dial-up and broadband increases. AOL was finally separated from Time Warner in 2009, with Tim Armstrong appointing a new CEO. Under his leadership, the company invests in media brands and advertising technologies.

On June 23, 2015, AOL was acquired by Verizon Communications for $ 4.4 billion. In the following months, AOL also made deals with Microsoft and acquired several property technologies, including Millennial Media and Canvas to enhance their mobile ad-tech capabilities.

Video AOL

Histori

1983-91: Awal tahun

AOL began in 1983, as a short-term venture called Control Video Corporation (or CVC ), founded by Bill von Meister. The only product is an online service called GameLine for the Atari 2600 video game console, after von Meister's idea to buy music on demand is rejected by Warner Bros. Customers. Customers purchased a modem from the company for US $ 49.95 and paid a one-time US $ 15 setup fee. GameLine allows customers to temporarily download games and track high scores, at a cost of US $ 1 per game. The phone is disconnected and the downloaded games will remain in the GameLine Master Module and can be played until the user turns off the console or downloads other games.

In January 1983, Steve Case was hired as a marketing consultant for Video Control on the recommendation of his brother, investment banker Dan Case. In May 1983, Jim Kimsey became a manufacturing consultant for Control Video, which was almost bankrupt. Kimsey was taken by his West Point friend, Frank Caufield, an investor at the company. In early 1985, von Meister left the company.

On May 24, 1985, Quantum Computer Services , an online service company, was founded by Jim Kimsey of Remnants Control Video, with Kimsey as Chief Executive Officer, and Marc Seriff as Chief Technology Officer. The technical team consists of Marc Seriff, Tom Ralston, Ray Heinrich, Steve Trus, Ken Huntsman, Janet Hunter, Dave Brown, Craig Dykstra, Doug Coward, and Mike Ficco. In 1987, Case was promoted again to executive vice president. Kimsey immediately began handling the Case to take over the role of CEO, which he did when Kimny retired in 1991.

Kimsey changed the company's strategy, and in 1985, launched a special online service for Commodore 64 and 128 computers, originally called Quantum Link ("Q-Link" for short). The Quantum Link software is based on licensed software from PlayNet, Inc., (founded in 1983 by Howard Goldberg and Dave Panzl). This service is different from other online services because it uses the computing power of Commodore 64 and Apple II rather than just "dumb" terminals. It passes the token back and forth and provides a fixed price service that is customized for home users. In May 1988, Quantum and Apple launched AppleLink Personal Edition for Apple II and Macintosh computers. In August 1988, Quantum launched PC Link, a service for IBM-compatible PCs developed in a joint venture with Tandy Corporation. After the company parted company with Apple in October 1989, Quantum changed the name of the service to America Online. The case of promoting and selling AOL as an online service for people unfamiliar with computers, unlike CompuServe, is already well established in the technical community.

From the beginning, AOL entered online games in its product mix; many classic and casual games are included in the original PlayNet software system. In the early years AOL company introduced many interactive interactive titles and games, including:

• Habitat's graphical chat environment (1986-1988) and Club Caribe (1988) from LucasArts.
• The first online serial fiction series QuantumLink Serial by Tracy Reed (1988).
• Quantum Space, the first game game to be played automatically (1989-1991).
1991-2006: _Internet_age, _Time_Warner_merger "> 1991-2006: The Internet Age, Time Warner merge

In February 1991, AOL for DOS was launched using the GeoWorks interface followed a year later by AOL for Windows. This coincides with the growth of paid-based online services, such as Prodigy, CompuServe, and GEnie. 1991 also saw the introduction of Dungeons & amp; The Dragons title is called Neverwinter Nights from Stormfront Studios; which is one of the first Online Multiplayer Role Games to describe adventure with graphics, not text.

During the early 1990s, the average subscription lasted for about 25 months and accounted for $ 350 in total revenue. Ads invite modem owners to "Try America Online FREE", promising free software and trial memberships. AOL terminated Q-Link and PC Link in late 1994. In September 1993, AOL added Usenet access to its features. This is commonly referred to as "September Eternal", since Usenet's new user cycle was previously dominated by a small number of new students and students who gained access in September and took several weeks to adjust. This also coincides with the new marketing campaign "carpet bombing" by CMO Jan Brandt to distribute as many free trial AOL disk trials through unconventional distribution partners as possible. At one point, 50% of the CDs produced worldwide have the AOL logo. AOL quickly surpassed GEnie, and in the mid-1990s, he graduated Prodigy (who for several years allowed AOL advertising) and CompuServe.

Over the next few years, AOL launched services with the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Geographic, Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, Pearson, Scholastic, ASCD, NSBA, NCTE, Discovery Networks, Turner Education Services (CNN Newsroom), NPR, The Princeton Review, Stanley Kaplan, Barron, Highlights for Kids, US Department of Education, and many other educational providers. AOL offered the first home-based help service (the Teacher Pager - 1990; before this, AOL provided a homework help bulletin board), children's first service, for children (Kids Only Online, 1991), the first online service for Parents Information Network, 1991), first online course (1988), first omnibus service for teachers (the Teachers' Information Network, 1990), first online exhibition (Library of Congress, 1991), first parent controls, and many other online educational experience.

AOL charged its users an hourly fee until December 1996, when the company changed to a fixed monthly rate of $ 19.95. During this time, AOL connections will be flooded by users trying to resume, and many cancel their accounts due to constant busy signals. An advert featuring Steve Case tells the AOL people are working day and night to fix the problem created. Within three years, AOL's user base grew to 10 million. In 1995 AOL was headquartered at 8619 Westwood Center Drive at Tysons Corner CDP in Fairfax County, Virginia, near the City of Vienna.

AOL quickly ran out of space in October 1996 for its network on the Fairfax County campus. In 1996, AOL moved to 22000 AOL Way in Dulles, Loudoun County, Virginia. The move to Dulles took place in mid-1996 and provided room for future growth. In a five-year landmark agreement with the most popular operating system, AOL is bundled with Windows software.

On March 31, 1997, this short-lived eWorld was purchased by AOL. In 1997, about half of all US homes with Internet access had it through AOL. During this time, AOL's content channel, under Jason Seiken, including News, Sports and Entertainment, experienced its biggest growth as AOL became an internationally dominant online service with over 34 million subscribers. In November 1998, AOL announced it would acquire Netscape. The agreement closed on March 17, 1999.

In January 2000, AOL and Time Warner announced plans to join, forming AOL Time Warner, Inc. The terms of the deal call for AOL shareholders to own 55% of new joint ventures. The deal closed on January 11, 2001. The new company is headed by executives from AOL, SBI, and Time Warner. Gerald Levin, who once served as CEO of Time Warner, is the CEO of the new company. Steve Case is chairman, J. Michael Kelly (from AOL) is Chief Financial Officer, Robert W. Pittman (from AOL) and Dick Parsons (from Time Warner) serving as Co-Chief Operating Officers. In 2002, Jonathan Miller became CEO of AOL. The following year, AOL Time Warner dropped "AOL" from his name.

In 2004, along with the launch of AOL 9.0 Optimized, AOL also provides a personalized greeting option that will allow users to hear their name when accessing basic functions and email notifications, or when logged in or out. In 2005, AOL broadcasted Live 8 concerts via the Internet, and thousands of users downloaded concert clips over the next few months. At the end of 2005, AOL released AOL Safety & amp; Security Center, a collection of McAfee Antivirus, CA anti-spyware, and firewall software and proprietary phishing protection. News reports at the end of 2005 identified companies like Yahoo !, Microsoft, and Google as candidates to turn AOL into a joint venture. The plan was abandoned when it was revealed on December 20, 2005 that Google would buy a 5% stake in AOL for $ 1 billion.

2006-09: Rebranding and decline

On April 3, 2006, AOL announced to stop America Online's full name; the official name of the service becomes AOL, and the full name of the Time Warner sub-division becomes AOL LLC. On June 8, 2006, AOL offered a new program called AOL Active Security Monitor, a diagnostic tool that checks the local PC security status, and recommends additional security software from AOL or Download.com. This program ranks computers in different areas of security and general computer health. Two months later, AOL released AOL Active Virus Shield. This software was developed by Kaspersky Lab. Active Virus Shield software is free and does not require AOL account, only internet email address. The ISP AOL UK side was purchased by The Carphone Warehouse in October 2006 to take advantage of their 100,000 LLU customers, making The Carphone Warehouse the largest LLU provider in the UK.

In August 2006, AOL announced that it would provide email accounts and software previously available only to its paid subscribers by providing customers accessing AOL or AOL.com through access methods not owned by AOL (otherwise known as "third-party transit" "bring your own access", or "BYOA"). This step is designed to reduce costs associated with the "Walled Garden" business model by reducing the use of AOL's access points and redirecting members with high-speed internet access from client-based to a more profitable ad provider, AOL.com. Changes from paid to free are also designed to slow down the rate of members canceling their accounts and defecting to Microsoft Hotmail, Yahoo !, or other free email providers. Other free services include:

• AIM (AOL Instant Messenger)
• AOL Video shows professional content and allows users to upload videos as well.
• Local AOL, which consists of CityGuide, Yellow Pages and Local Search services to help users find local information such as restaurants, local events, and directory listings.
• AOL News
• My AOL eAddress, the custom domain name for the email address. This email account can be accessed in a manner similar to other AOL and AIM email accounts.
• Xdrive, which is a service offered by AOL, lets users back up their files over the Internet. It was acquired by AOL on August 3, 2005 and closed on January 12, 2009. It offers a free 5 GB account (free online file storage) to anyone with AOL screen name. Xdrive also provides remote backup services and 50 GB of storage at a cost of $ 9.95 per month.

Also that month, AOL told its customers in America that it would increase its dial-up access price to US $ 25.90. This increase is part of the effort to move the dial-up users of the remaining services to broadband, as the rising prices are the same price they charge for monthly DSL access. However, AOL has since started offering their services for $ 9.95 per month for unlimited dial-up access.

On November 16, 2006, Randy Falco succeeded Jonathan Miller as CEO. In December 2006, AOL closed their last remaining call center in the United States, "taking America from America Online" according to industry experts. Service centers based in India and the Philippines continue today to provide customer support and technical assistance to customers.

On 17 September 2007, AOL announced the transfer of one of its headquarters from Dulles, Virginia, to New York City and merged its various ad units into a new subsidiary called Platform A. This follows several advertising acquisitions, primarily Advertising. com, and highlights the company's new focus on ad-driven business models. AOL's management emphasizes "significant operations" will remain in Dulles, which includes modern corporate and bank access services.

In October 2007, AOL announced it would move one of its headquarters from Loudoun County, Virginia, to New York City; it will continue to operate its office in Virginia. As part of an upcoming move to New York and the restructuring of responsibilities at Dulles headquarters complex following Reston's move, AOL CEO Randy Falco announced on October 15, 2007 plans to lay off 2,000 employees worldwide by the end of 2007, starting "soon". The end result is almost 40% of layoffs on the board at AOL. Most of the compensation packages related to the October 2007 layoffs include a minimum of 120 days of severance pay, 60 of which were granted in lieu of the terms of the previous 60 days notice under the Federal WARN Act 1988.

In November 2007, AOL's subscriber base has been reduced to 10.1 million subscribers, just ahead of Comcast and AT & amp; T Yahoo !. According to Falco, as of December 2007, the account's conversion rate from paid access to free access is over 80%.

On January 3, 2008, AOL announced the closure of one of the three Northern Virginia data centers, Reston Technology Center, and sold them to CRG West. On February 6, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes announced Time Warner would split AOL's internet access and advertising business into two, with the possibility of later selling internet access divisions.

On March 13, 2008, AOL bought the social networking site Bebo for $ 850m (£ 417m). On July 25, AOL announced that it released Xdrive, AOL Pictures, and BlueString to save costs and focus on its core advertising business. AOL Pictures was suspended on 31 December. On 31 October, AOL Hometown (web hosting service for AOL subscriber website) and AOL Journal blog hosting service was abolished.

2009-15: As a digital media company

On March 12, 2009, Tim Armstrong, previously with Google, was appointed Chairman and CEO of AOL. Shortly after that, on May 28, Time Warner announced it would cut AOL as an independent company after Google's shares stopped at the end of the fiscal year. On November 23, AOL launched a hidden preview of a new brand identity that has the word "AOL". "is superimposed on the canvas created by the assigned artist.The new identity, designed by Wolff Olins, applies to all AOL services on December 10, the date AOL traded independently for the first time since Time Warner merger on the New York Stock Exchange under the AOL symbol.

On April 6, 2010, AOL announced plans to close or sell Bebo; on June 16, the property was sold to Criterion Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount, believed to be around $ 10 million. In December, AIM removed access to the AOL chat room which recorded patronage declines in recent months.

Under Armstrong's leadership, AOL began to take steps in the direction of new business, marked by a series of acquisitions. On June 11, 2009, AOL has announced the acquisition of Patch Media, a network of news sites and community-specific information focusing on each city and community. On September 28, 2010, at the San Francisco TechCrunch Disrupt Conference, AOL signed an agreement to acquire TechCrunch to advance the premier online content deployment strategy. On December 12, 2010, AOL acquired about.me, personal profile and identity platform, four days after its last public launch.

On January 31, 2011, AOL announced the acquisition of the European video distribution network, goviral. On February 7, AOL bought The Huffington Post for $ 315 million. Shortly after the acquisition was announced, Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington replaces AOL David Eun Content Chief, assuming the role of President and Chief Editor of AOL Huffington Post Media Group. On March 10, AOL announced it would cut about 900 workers after the Huffington Post deal.

On September 14, 2011, AOL formed a strategic advertising sales partnership with two of its biggest competitors, Yahoo and Microsoft. According to the new partnership, the three companies will start selling inventory on their respective sites. This strategy is designed to help them compete with Google and ad networks.

On February 28, 2012, AOL partnered with PBS to launch MAKERS, a series of digital documentaries focused on high-achieving women in male-dominated industries such as war, comedy, space, business, Hollywood and politics. Subjects for the MAKERS episode have included Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton, Sheryl Sandberg, Martha Stewart, Indra Nooyi, Lena Dunham, and Ellen DeGeneres.

On March 15, 2012, AOL announced the acquisition of Hipster, a mobile photo sharing app for an undisclosed amount. On April 9, 2012, AOL announced an agreement to sell 800 patents to Microsoft for $ 1,056 billion. The agreement includes a "perpetual" license for AOL to use this patent.

In April, AOL took several steps to expand its ability to generate revenue through online video advertising. The company announced it would offer a gross rating point (GRP) guarantee for online video, reflecting the TV ratings system and ensuring viewer shipping for online video ad campaigns purchased across all of its properties. This announcement comes just days before NewFront Digital Content (DCNF) held a two-week event organized by AOL, Google, Hulu, Microsoft, Vevo, and Yahoo to showcase the participant's participating digital video offerings. NewFront Digital content is done before traditional television upfront in hopes of diverting more advertising money into digital space. On April 24, the company launched the AOL On network, a website for its video output.

In February 2013, AOL reported fourth-quarter earnings of $ 599.5 million, the first growth in quarterly earnings in 8 years.

In August 2013, Armstrong announced Patch Media will reduce or sell hundreds of local news sites. Not long after that, layoffs began, with up to 500 of 1,100 positions initially impacting. On January 15, 2014, Patch Media was separated, with majority ownership held by Hale Global. By the end of 2014, AOL holds 0.74% of the global advertising market, well behind Google's 31.4% industry leader.

On January 23, 2014, AOL acquired Gravity, a software startup that tracks users' online behavior and ads and tailored content based on their interests, for $ 83 million. The deal, which includes about 40 Gravity employees and their personalized technology, is the fourth largest deal of CEO Tim Armstrong since taking over the company in 2009. Later that year, AOL also acquired Vidible, which developed the technology to help websites run video content from publishers other. , and help video publishers sell their content to this website. The deal, announced December 1, 2014, is reportedly worth about $ 50 million.

On July 16, 2014, AOL won an Emmy nomination for the original AOL series The Future Starts Here in the News and Documentary category. This comes a few days after AOL won his first Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Park Bench with Steve Buscemi in the category of Short Range Short Form category, which went on to win the award. Created and hosted by Tiffany Shlain, this series focuses on human relationships with leading technologies and episodes such as The Future of Our Species, Why We Love Robots, and A Case for Optimism.

2015-present: Division Verizon

On May 12, 2015, Verizon announced plans to buy AOL for $ 50 per share in a $ 4.4 billion deal. The transaction was completed on 23 June. Armstrong, who continues to lead the company after regulatory approval, called the deal the next logical step for AOL. "If you look ahead five years, you will be in a space where there will be a large global scale network, and there is no better partner for us to move forward than Verizon." he says. "It's really not about selling a company these days, it's about setting up for the next five to 10 years."

Analyst David Bank says he thinks the deal makes sense for Verizon. The deal will expand Verizon's advertising sales platform and improve its video production capabilities through websites such as The Huffington Post , TechCrunch, and Engadget. However, Craig Moffett said it was unlikely the deal would make a big difference to Verizon's bottom line. AOL has about two million dial-up customers at the time of purchase. The announcement caused AOL's share price to rise 17%, while Verizon's share price fell slightly.

Shortly before the purchase of Verizon, on April 14, 2015, AOL launched ONE by AOL, a programmable digital marketing platform that brings together purchasing channels and audience management platforms to track and optimize campaigns across multiple screens. Later that year, on September 15th, AOL expanded the product with ONE by AOL: Creative, which is directed at creative agencies and media to link advertising and marketing efforts and distribution.

On May 8, 2015, AOL reported its first quarter earnings of $ 625.1 million, $ 483.5 million of which came from advertising and related operations, marking a 7% increase over Q1 2014. During the year, the AOL Platforms division saw a 21% in revenue, but the adjusted OIBDA decrease due to increased investment in video platforms and corporate programs.

On June 29, 2015, AOL announced an agreement with Microsoft to take over most of its digital advertising business. Under the agreement, as many as 1,200 Microsoft employees involved in the business will be transferred to AOL, and the company will take over the sale of displays, videos and mobile ads on various Microsoft platforms in nine countries, including Brazil, Canada, the United States and Britain. In addition, Google Search will be replaced on the AOL property with Bing - which will show ads sold by Microsoft. Both ad offers are subject to sharing of affiliate marketing results.

On July 22, 2015, AOL received two Emmy nominations from News and Documentaries, one for MAKERS in the Historical Extraordinary Programming category, and the other for True Trans With Laura Jane Grace, documenting the story of Laura Jane Grace, the transgender musician best known as founder, lead singer, songwriter and punk rock band Against Me! guitarist, and his decision to get out of the transition experience in general and overall.

On September 3, 2015, AOL agreed to purchase Millenial Media worth US $ 238 million. On October 23, 2015, AOL completed the acquisition.

On October 1, 2015, Go90, a free ad-supported mobile video service intended for adult and teenage viewers owned by Verizon and AOL that oversee and operate publicly launch their content after months of having a beta test. The initial launch lineup includes content from Comedy Central, Huffington Post, Nerd News, Univision News, Vice, ESPN and MTV.

On January 25, 2016, AOL expanded its ONE platform by introducing ONE by AOL: Publisher, which incorporates six previously separate technologies to offer a variety of publisher capabilities such as customizing video players, offering a premium advertising experience to increase visibility, and generate large video libraries. The announcement was made in conjunction with AOL's acquisition of AlephD, a Paris-based startup focusing on ad tracking analytics for ad pricing based on historical data. AOL announced AlephD will be part of ONE by AOL: Publisher Platform.

On April 20, 2016, AOL acquired RYOT virtual reality studio to deliver 360-degree video and immersive VR content to The Huffington Post's global audience across desktops, mobile and apps.

In July 2016, Verizon Communications announced its intention to purchase a core Internet business from Yahoo !. Verizon plans to merge AOL with Yahoo into a new company called "Oath".


Maps AOL





Products and services

Content

In 2017, AOL owns the following media brands in their families:

• HuffPost
• Moviefone
• Engadget
• Autoblog
• TechCrunch
• Cambio
• Style Me Pretty
• MapQuest
• AOL BUILD
• MAKERS
• Live chats. Some are custom made by members and some are permanent and created by AOL and they all cover different topics

AOL content contributors include over 20,000 bloggers, including politicians, celebrities, academics, and policy specialists, who contribute to the various topics that make news. This group video is collected on its AOL On website, which offers channels in news, entertainment, style, technology, business, food, home, travel, health, automotive, parenting, relationships, video games and pets.

AOL produces the MAKERS video series, focusing on high achieving women. AOL also organized and revived their BUILD interview series featuring guests from entertainment, technology, fashion, and business.

In addition to mobile-optimized web experience, AOL generates mobile apps for existing AOL properties like AOL Active, Autoblog, Engadget, Huffington Post, AOL Makers, Moviefone, TechCrunch, AIM, MapQuest and products like AIM, Alto, Pip, and Vivv.

Ads

AOL has a global brand media portfolio and cross-mobile, desktop, and TV advertising solutions. Solutions include brand and sponsor integration through branded content arm in it, Studio Partners by AOL, as well as data and program offerings through advertising technology pile, ONE by AOL.

AOL acquired a number of businesses and technologies helped shape ONE by AOL. This acquisition includes AdapTV in 2013 and Convertro, Precision Demand, and Vidible in 2014. ONE by AOL is further broken down into ONE by AOL for Publishers (formerly Vidible, AOL On Network and Be On for Publishers) and ONE by AOL for Advertisers, respectively -must have multiple sub-platforms.

ONE by AOL for Publishers consists of:

• ONE by AOL: Ad Server
• ONE by AOL: Attendees
• ONE by AOL: Creative
• ONE by AOL: Show MP
• ONE by AOL: Mobile
• ONE by AOL: Videos
• ONE by AOL: Video Marketplace

ONE by AOL for Advertisers consists of:

• ONE by AOL: Attribution
• ONE by AOL: Attendees
• ONE by AOL: Creative
• ONE by AOL: Show
• ONE by AOL: TV
• ONE by AOL: Videos
• ONE by AOL: Video Marketplace

Membership

AOL offers a variety of integrated products and properties including communication tools, mobile apps and services, and subscription packages.

• Dial-up Internet Access - According to AOL's quarterly earnings report May 8, 2015, 2.1 million people still use the AOL dial-up service.
• AOL Mail - AOL Mail is AOL's email client. It's fully integrated with AIM and links to news headlines on the AOL content site.
• AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) - is AOL's instant messaging tool. It also includes video-chat service, AV by AIM. On December 15, 2017, AOL stopped AIM.
• AOL Plan - The AOL plan offers three online tools of security and assistance: ID protection, data security, and general online technical assistance services.

AOL Desktop

AOL Desktop is an internet suite produced by AOL that integrates web browsers, media players, and instant messenger clients. Version 10.X is based on AOL OpenRide, this is an improvement of that sort. The macOS version is based on WebKit.

AOL Desktop 10.X version is different from previous AOL browser and AOL Desktop version. Its features are focused on web search as well as email. For example, one does not need to sign in to AOL to use it as a normal browser. In addition, non-AOL email accounts can be accessed through it. There are several main buttons: "MAIL", "IM", and some shortcuts to various Webpages. The first two require users to login but shortcuts to web pages can be used without authentication. AOL Desktop version 10.X is flagged late as unsupported in support of AOL Desktop version 9.X support.

Version 9.8 was released, replacing Internet Explorer component from internet browser with CEF (Chromium Embedded Framework) to give users a better web browsing experience closer to Chrome

Version 11 of AOL Desktop, currently in Beta, is a total rewrite but maintains a user interface similar to the previous 9.8.X release series.



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Corporate social responsibility

Since spinning from Time Warner in 2010, AOL has made corporate social responsibility an essential part of its mission. In its corporate values, AOL stated, "We are in business to help people, period." For corporate social responsibility efforts, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong was included in Adweek's July 9, 2012 article, "The Giver," highlighting individuals who have given their companies time, money and resources for a variety of causes.

Every year on the company's anniversary, AOL employees around the world are invited to participate in Monster Aid Days, a global community service day dedicated to strengthening the communities where AOL employees live and work. Other corporate social responsibility initiatives include producing content related to causes for AOL properties; donating PSA campaigns across the AOL network; empowering consumers through contests and initiatives related to causes; implementing a permanent cause module on the AOL homepage, dedicated to promoting nonprofit organizations.

AOL Charitable Foundation is a 501c3 private fund funded by AOL Inc.



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Criticism

In its previous incarnation as a "walled garden" community and service provider, AOL received criticisms of its community policies, terms of service, and customer service. Prior to 2006, AOL was known for direct delivery of CD-ROMs and 3 ½ "floppy disks containing its software.The disks were distributed in bulk: at one point, half of the CDs produced worldwide had AOL logos on them.The marketing tactics were criticized because of its environmental costs, and AOL CDs are recognized as the most irritating technological PC World '.

Community leaders

Prior to mid-2005, AOL used an online volunteer called Community Leader, or CL, to monitor chat rooms, message boards, and libraries. AOL's use of long-distance volunteers dates back to the establishment of Quantum Link services in 1985. Much of the content maintenance is done by partners and internal employees. Community leaders are recruited for some content design and maintenance, where they use an exclusive language and interface called RAINMAN. Other community leaders organize chat rooms and provide online help. During the time that AOL subscribers are paid per hour, hosted chat rooms are compensated in free online time for each hour they work, even though every turning hour becomes worthless once a fixed-rate payment is introduced.

Two former community leaders, Brian Williams of Dallas and Kelly Hallissey of New York filed a class action lawsuit against AOL, citing US labor law violations in its use of public figures. The suit was filed in United States Federal Court of New York City on May 25, 1999, and was followed promptly by the dismissal of all community leaders under the age of 18, as well as the reorganization of the community leader's program as a whole. The Department of Labor is also investigating allegations of AOL labor law violations, but no conclusions, closing their investigation in 2001. AOL began drastically reducing the responsibilities and privileges of its volunteers in 2000. The program finally ended on June 8, 2005. Leadership Communities are currently offered 12 credit months in their accounts as a token of gratitude for their services.

Within a decade of class action lawsuit filed, the class has grown to more than 6,000 members, comprising the largest class action suit ever filed against an internet-based company. It is currently the third largest class ever involved in any lawsuit at the federal level in the United States, which ultimately affects the appropriateness of individual work in the online environment.

In February 2010, the settlement was approved by the Court in a class action lawsuit. Settlement includes payment of $ 15 million USD. This payment is then divided into three, the first is a lawyer and legal fees. Five million subsequently divided among class members including more than 7,000 individuals of former Community Leaders. The last five million dollars were donated to a charity chosen by Hallissey and Williams, and then approved by the Court for distribution. One such charity, the Remote Area Medical Foundation (www.ramusa.org), receives payments of more than $ 1.2 million USD for the provision of medical services, supplies and medicines for those in need in rural areas of the United States and beyond.

Prior to the 1999 class action lawsuit, community leaders were notified of compensation changes for the work performed by AOL. Community leaders will be charged a reduced monthly rate for their account, and will no longer be granted unlimited access without an invoice. During this live announcement through an online meeting of all community leaders in the virtual arena, Brian Williams of Dallas leads many community leaders in a virtual or "sit-down" strike to protest the new charges that are now being asked by community leaders to pay. This protest or strike was recorded as the first of its kind for the online environment and was dubbed for a row of arenas held at: Row 800. After the protest, AOL ended an online working relationship between himself and some of the Leader Communities involved. Quickly after the release of these community leaders, each was restored, with the exception of Williams, for his role in protest. During this time, Williams's role in AOL is the XNT Guide (Guide Program), CB Naked (Crystal Ball forum), VnV Naked (Forum Vices and Virtues iVillage) and JCommBrian (Jewish Community Online Forum).

Billing dispute

AOL has faced numerous lawsuits over slow claims to stop billing customers after their account has been canceled, either by the company or by the user. In addition, AOL changed its method of calculating the minutes used in response to a class action lawsuit. Previously, AOL will add 15 seconds to the time the user connects to the service and round up to the rest of the minute (thus, people using the service for 12 minutes and 46 seconds will be charged for 14 minutes). AOL claims this is to record the signs/timings, but because this practice is unknown to its customers, the plaintiff wins (some also indicate that signing and shutting down does not always take 15 seconds, especially when connected via another ISP). AOL discloses its time-connection calculation method to all its customers and gives them credit with extra free working hours. In addition, AOL software will tell users how long they were connected and how many minutes they were billed.

AOL was sued by Ohio Attorney General in October 2003 for improper billing practices. The case was resolved on June 8, 2005. AOL agreed to settle any consumer complaints filed with the Ohio AG office. In December 2006, AOL agreed to provide restitution to Florida consumers to resolve the case filed against them by the Florida Attorney General.

Account cancellation

Many customers complain that AOL personnel ignore their demands to cancel service and stop billing. In response to some 300 consumer complaints, the New York Attorney General's office initiated an AOL customer service policy investigation. The investigation revealed that the company has a complicated scheme to reward employees who are meant to keep or "keep" customers who have called to cancel their Internet service. In many instances, such retention is made against the wishes of the customer, or without their consent. Under the scheme, customer service personnel receive bonuses worth tens of thousands of dollars if they succeed in persuading or "saving" half of the people who call to cancel the service. Over the past few years, AOL has instituted minimum retention or percentage of "savings", which consumer representatives expect. These bonuses, and the minimum "sparing" rate that accompanies them, have the employee effect of disrespecting the cancellation, or otherwise making the cancellation too difficult for the consumer.

On August 24, 2005, America Online agreed to pay $ 1.25 million to New York state and reform its customer service procedures. Under the agreement, AOL no longer requires customer service representatives to meet the minimum quota for customer retention to receive bonuses. But the agreement covers only those in New York state.

On June 13, 2006, Vincent Ferrari documented his account's canceled phone call in a blog post, stating he had switched to broadband the previous year. In the recording of a phone call, AOL's representative refused to cancel the account unless a 30-year-old Ferrari explains why AOL hours are still recorded in it. Ferrari insists that AOL software is not even installed on the computer. When Ferrari demanded that the account be canceled, AOL's representative was asked to speak with Ferrari's father, who had prepared the account. The conversation was aired on CNBC. When CNBC reporters tried to have an account on AOL canceled, they were immediately hanged and it took more than 45 minutes to cancel the account.

On July 19, 2006, all AOL retention guides were released on the Internet. On August 3, 2006, Time Warner announced that the company will dissolve the AOL retention center because its profits depend on $ 1 billion in cost-cutting. The company expects to lose more than six million customers over the next year.

Direct marketing from disk

Prior to 2006, AOL was renowned for its unsolicited bulk direct mail from 3½ "floppy disks and CD-ROMs containing their software - they were the most frequent users of this marketing tactic, and received criticism for campaign environmental costs. PC World , in the 1990s "You can not open magazines ( PC World included) or your mailboxes without AOL disks that fall from it".

The mass distribution of these disks is seen as waste by the public and causes groups of protest. One is No More AOL CD, a web-based effort by two IT workers to collect one million disks in order to return the disk to AOL. The website began in August 2001, and an estimated 410,176 CDs were collected in August 2007 when the project was closed.

Software

• In 2000, AOL was faced with a $ 8 billion lawsuit stating that AOL 5.0 software caused significant difficulties for users trying to use a third party Internet service provider. The lawsuit seeks up to $ 1000 damage to any user who has downloaded the quoted software at the time of the lawsuit. AOL then agreed to a $ 15 million settlement, without admitting a mistake. The AOL software is then given a feature called AOL Dialer, or AOL Connect on Mac OS X . This feature allows users to connect to the ISP without running the full interface. This allows users to only use the apps they want to use, especially if they do not like AOL Browser.
• AOL 9.0 has been identified by Stopbadware as under investigation to install additional software without disclosure, and modify browser preferences, toolbars, and icons. However, since the release of AOL 9.0 VR (Vista Ready) on January 26, 2007, it is no longer considered a badware due to AOL changes made in the software.

Usenet newsgroup

When AOL gave clients access to Usenet in 1993, they hid at least one newsgroup in the standard list view: alt.aol-sucks . AOL did create a list of newsgroups in the alternate description view, but changed the description to "Flames and complaints about America Online". With the AOL client collecting Usenet newsgroups, existing old user base started to develop a strong dislike for AOL and its clients, referring to the new situation as Eternal September.

AOL terminated access to Usenet on June 25, 2005. No official details were provided regarding the cause of Usenet access closure, except for giving users advice to access Usenet services from third parties, Google Groups. AOL then provides a community-based message board instead of Usenet.

Terms of Service (TOS)

AOL has a set of detailed guidelines and expectations for users in their service, known as the Terms of Service (TOS, also known as Terms of Service, or COS in the UK). These are separated into three distinct sections: Member Agreement , Community Guidelines and Privacy Policy . All three agreements are presented to the user at the time of registration and the digital reception is reached when they access the AOL service. During periods where volunteer chatter residents and board monitors are used, chat room hosts are given a short online training session and a test of violations of the Terms of Service.

There are many complaints over rules governing AOL user behavior. Some users disagree with TOS, citing too-strict guidelines to follow by the fact that TOS may change unnoticed by the user. The reasonably large cause for this is probably due to suspected censorship of user-generated content during the early years of growth for AOL.

Email certified

In early 2005, AOL declared its intention to implement a certified email system called Goodmail, which would allow companies to email users who had pre-existing business relationships, with visual indications that the email came from a trusted source and without the risk that email messages might blocked or disarmed by spam filters.

This decision drew fire from MoveOn, which characterized the program as "email tax", and the EFF, which characterized it as a nonprofit shock. A website called Dearaol.com was launched, with online petitions and blogs collecting hundreds of signatures from people and organizations who express their rejection of Goodmail's use by AOL.

Esther Dyson defended an editorial move at The New York Times, saying "I hope Goodmail succeeds, and it has a lot of competition." I also think it and its competitors will eventually turn into a service that more directly serves the interests of mail recipients Instead of going to Goodmail and EON, they will also be shared with individual recipients. "

Tim Lee of the Technology Liberation Front posted an article questioning the EFF adopting a confrontational posture when dealing with private companies. The Lee article cited a series of discussions on the Politechbot mailing list Declan McCullagh on this subject between Danny O'Brien EFF and antispammer Suresh Ramasubramanian, who also compared EFF tactics against Goodmail with the tactics used by Republican political strategist Karl Rove. Spamassassin developer Justin Mason posted some criticisms of EFF's and Moveon's "exaggeration" in their opposition to the scheme.

The dearaol.com campaign lost momentum and disappeared, with the last post to dearaol.com's now dead blog - "AOL started a search" made on May 9, 2006.

Comcast, which also uses the service, announced on its website that Goodmail has ceased operations and from February 4, 2011 they are no longer using the service.

Search data

On August 4, 2006, AOL released a compressed text file on one of its websites containing 20 million search keywords for over 650,000 users over a 3 month period between 1 March 2006 and 31 May, intended for research purposes. AOL withdrew files from public access on August 7, but not before its extensive distribution on the Internet by others. The derivative research, titled A Picture of Search was published by author Pass, Chowdhury and Torgeson for the First International Conference on Scalable Information Systems.

The data is used by websites such as AOLstalker for entertainment purposes, where AOLstalker users are encouraged to rate AOL clients based on humor about the personal details expressed by search behavior.

Expose user list

In 2003, Jason Smathers, an AOL employee, was convicted of stealing 92 million American Online screen names and selling them to a known spammers. Smathers pleaded guilty to conspiracy allegations in 2005. Smathers pleaded guilty to violations of the US CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. He was sentenced in August 2005 to 15 months in prison; the punishing judge also recommended Smathers be forced to pay $ 84,000 in damages, tripling the $ 28,000 he sold his address.

AOL Computer Check "scareware"

On February 27, 2012 a class action lawsuit was filed against Support.com, Inc. and partner AOL, Inc. The lawsuit alleges that Support.com and AOL's Computer Checkup "scareware" (using software developed by Support.com) misrepresented that their software program will identify and resolve a number of technical issues with the computer, offering to do a free "scan" , which often encounters problems with the user's computer. The companies then offered to sell the software - where AOL was charged with spending $ 4.99 per month and Support.com $ 29 - to fix the problem. Good AOL, Inc. and Support.com, Inc. completed on May 30, 2013 for $ 8.5 million. This includes $ 25.00 for each valid class member and $ 100,000 each for Consumer Watchdog and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Judge Corley wrote: "Distributing some of [funds] to Consumer Watchdog will meet the interests of quiet class members because the organization will use the funds to help protect consumers across the country from being subject to the kind of fraudulent and misleading behavior that is allegedly here, and "The EFF mission includes a powerful consumer protection component, especially in terms of online protection."

AOL continues to market Computer Inspection . It is unclear whether this latest Computer Inspection continues to use scareware techniques.

NSA Prism Program

Following a media report on PRISM, the NSA's massive electronic surveillance program, in June 2013, several technology companies were identified as participants, including AOL. According to the program leak, AOL joined PRISM program in 2011.

Hosting user profile changed, then stopped

At one time, most AOL users have an online "profile" hosted by the AOL Hometown service. When AOL Hometown is terminated, the user must create a new profile in Bebo. This is a failed attempt to create a social network that will compete with Facebook. When the Bebo value drops to a fraction of AOL $ 850,000,000 paid for it, users are forced to re-create their profile again, on a new service called AOL Lifestream.

AOL took the decision to close Lifestream on February 24, 2017, and gives users a one-month notification to store photos and videos that have been uploaded to Lifestream. After closing, AOL no longer provides any option to host user profiles.

During the Hometown/Bebo/Lifestream era, other user profiles can be displayed by clicking on the "Buddy Info" button on the AOL Desktop software. After the Lifestream shutdown, clicking "Buddy Info" does something that does not provide any information about the selected buddy: it causes the AIM home page (www.aim.com) to display.



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See also




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References




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External links

• Official website

Source of the article : Wikipedia