AOL LLC
Type	Subsidiary of Time Warner
Founded	1983 as Quantum Computer Services
Headquarters	New York, New York (operations in Dulles, VA), United States
Key people	Randy Falco, Chairman & CEO Ronald Grant, President & COO
Industry	Internet & Communications
Products	Internet service
Employees	8,000[1]
Website	AOL.com

AOL LLC (formerly America Online, Inc.) is an American global Internet services and media company operated by Time Warner and was headquartered in Loudoun County, Virginia until late April 2008 when it was moved to new offices at 770 Broadway in New York City. Founded in 1983 as Quantum Computer Services, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services.^[2] AOL may refer to: AOL LLC (formerly America Online, Inc. ... Image File history File links AOL_logo. ... A subsidiary, in business, is an entity that is controlled by another entity. ... Time Warner Inc. ... For the Jimi Hendrix song, see 1983. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... Dulles is an unincorporated area in Loudoun County, Virginia. ... Randy Falco is the present AOL CEO and board chairman. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Copy of the original phone of Alexander Graham Bell at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris Telecommunication is the assisted transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication. ... “ISP” redirects here. ... This article is about work. ... A website (alternatively, web site or Web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or more web servers, usually accessible via the Internet. ... Time Warner Inc. ... Loudoun County (pronounced LOUD-un; IPA: ) is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States, and is part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Era (or Anno Domini), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Franchising (from the French franchir: vt to clear an obstacle or difficulty)[1] refers to the method of practicing and using another persons philosophy of business. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Version is a state of an object or concept that varies from its previous state or condition. ...

AOL is perhaps best known for its online software suite, also called "AOL", that allowed millions of customers around the world to access the world's largest "walled garden" online community and eventually reach out to the internet as a whole. At one time AOL's membership was over 30 million members worldwide,^[3] most of whom accessed the AOL service through the AOL software suite. A walled garden, with regards to media content, refers to a closed set or exclusive set of information services provided for users (a method of creating a monopoly or securing an information system). ...

Description

With regional branches around the world, the former American "goliath among Internet service providers"^[3] once had more than 30 million subscribers^[3] on several continents. In January 2000, AOL and Time Warner announced plans to merge. The terms of the deal negotiated called for AOL shareholders to own 55% of the new, combined company. The deal closed on January 11, 2001 after receiving regulatory approval from the FTC, the FCC and the European Union. This article is about the biblical warrior. ... “ISP” redirects here. ... Time Warner Inc. ... is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... | logo_caption = | seal = US-FederalTradeCommission-Seal. ... FCC redirects here. ...

America Online, Inc., as the company was then called, was led by executives from AOL, SBI and Time Warner. Gerald Levin, who had served as CEO of Time Warner, was CEO of the new company. Steve Case served as Chairman, J. Michael Kelly (from AOL) was the Chief Financial Officer, Robert W. Pittman (from AOL) and Dick Parsons (from Time Warner) served as Co-Chief Operating Officers. The total value of AOL stock subsequently went from $226 billion to about $20 billion.^[4] Similarly, its customer base has decreased to 10.1 million subscribers as of November 2007,^[5] just narrowly ahead of Comcast and AT&T Yahoo. Gerald M. Levin (b. ... Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the job of having the ultimate executive responsibility or authority within an organization or corporation. ... Steve Case (born August 21, 1958) is a businessman best known as the co-founder and former chief executive officer and chairman of America Online (AOL). ... Chairman of the Board redirects here. ... CFO redirects here. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A Chief Operating Officer (COO) is a corporate officer responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the corporation. ... Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is the largest cable television company and the second largest Internet service provider in the United States. ...

AOL is a company in transition, made evident by discussions of buy-outs and joint ventures during a period of dramatic decline in AOL's subscriber base.^{[3][neutrality disputed]} News reports in late 2005 identified companies such as Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google as candidates for turning AOL into a joint venture;^[6] those plans were apparently abandoned when it was revealed on December 20, 2005 that Google would purchase a 5% share of AOL for $1 billion. A joint venture (often abbreviated JV) is an entity formed between two or more parties to undertake economic activity together. ... Yahoo redirects here. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... This article is about the corporation. ... is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

AOL was rated both one of the best and worst Internet suppliers in the UK, according to a poll by BBC Watchdog.^[7] On 31 March 1997, the short lived eWorld was purchased by AOL, forcing the 115,000 users to subscribe to AOL. The ISP side of AOL UK was bought by The Carphone Warehouse in October 2006 to take advantage of their 100,000 LLU customers which made The Carphone Warehouse the biggest LLU provider in the UK.^[8] This article does not cite any references or sources. ... is the 90th day of the year (91st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... eWorld was a short-lived group of online services launched by Apple Computer in June 1994. ... “ISP” redirects here. ... The Carphone Warehouse Group PLC (LSE: CPW), known as The Carphone Warehouse, is Europes largest independent mobile phone retailer, with over 1,700 stores across Europe. ... Local loop unbundling (LLU) is the regulatory process of allowing multiple telecommunications operators use of connections from the telephone exchanges central office to the customers premises. ...

History

AOL began life as a short-lived venture called Control Video Corporation (or CVC), founded by Bill von Meister. Its sole product was an online service called Gameline for the Atari 2600 video game console after von Meister's idea of buying music on demand was rejected by Warner Brothers.^[9] Subscribers bought a modem from the company for $49.95 and paid a one-time $15 setup fee. Gameline permitted subscribers to temporarily download games and keep track of high scores, at a cost of $1 per game. The telephone disconnected and the downloaded game would remain in Gameline's Master Module and playable until the user turned off his console or downloaded another game. Microsofts disk operating system, MS-DOS, was Microsofts implementation of DOS, which was the first popular operating system for the IBM PC, and until recently, was widely used on the PC compatible platform. ... The Windows 3. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... The Windows 3. ... The Windows 3. ... The Windows 3. ... The Windows 3. ... Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. ... Windows NT (New Technology) is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. ... Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. ... The CVC GameLine was a cartridge for the Atari 2600 which could download games from a phone line. ... The Atari 2600, released in October 1977, is the video game console credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. ... Game console redirects here. ... Warner Bros. ... For other uses, see Modem (disambiguation). ...

In January 1983, Steve Case was hired as a marketing consultant for Control Video on the recommendation of his brother, investment banker Dan Case. In May 1983, Jim Kimsey became a manufacturing consultant for Control Video, which was near bankruptcy. Kimsey was brought in by his West Point friend Frank Caufield, an investor in the company.^[9] Von Meister quietly left the company in early 1985. Control Video was reorganized as Quantum Computer Services, Inc. on May 24, 1985, with Kimsey as Chief Executive Officer and Marc Seriff as Chief Technology Officer. Out of 100 employees from Control Video, only 10 remained in the new company.^[9] Case himself rose quickly through the ranks; Kimsey promoted him to vice-president of marketing not long after becoming CEO, and later promoted him further to executive vice-president in 1987. Kimsey soon began to groom Case to ascend to the rank of CEO, which he did when Kimsey retired in 1991. Steve Case (born August 21, 1958) is a businessman best known as the co-founder and former chief executive officer and chairman of America Online (AOL). ... Jim Kimsey (James V. Kimsey) was the co-founder, CEO, and first chairman of internet service provider America Online (AOL). ... Chief Executive redirects here. ... Marc Seriff (born 5 May 1948 in Austin, Texas) is a programmer who, along with Steve Case, Jim Kimsey and others, was a co-founder of America Online. ... Chief Technical Officer or Chief Technology Officer, usually seen as CTO, is a business executive position whose holder is focussed on technical issues in a company. ...

Kimsey changed the company's strategy, and in 1985 launched a dedicated online service for Commodore 64 and 128 computers, originally called Quantum Link ("Q-Link" for short). The Quantum Link software was based on software licensed from PlayNet, Inc. In May 1988, Quantum and Apple launched AppleLink Personal Edition for Apple II and Macintosh computers. After the two companies parted ways in October 1989, Quantum changed the service's name to America Online.^[10][11] In August 1988, Quantum launched PC Link, a service for IBM-compatible PCs developed in a joint venture with the Tandy Corporation. C-64 redirects here. ... The Commodore 128 (C128, CBM 128, C=128) home/personal computer was Commodore Business Machiness (CBM) last commercially released 8-bit machine. ... Quantum Link main menu Quantum Link (or Q-Link) was a U.S. online service for Commodore 64 and 128 personal computers that operated from November 5, 1985 to November 1, 1994. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... AppleLink was the name of both Apple Computers online service for its users, and the client software used to access it. ... The 1977 Apple II, complete with integrated keyboard, color graphics, sound, a plastic case and eight expansion slots. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... A stylised illustration of a personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a computer whose original sales price, size, and capabilities make it useful for individuals, intended to be operated directly by an end user, with no intervening computer operator. ... Tandy Corporation is the former name of the parent company of RadioShack Corporation, a Fort Worth, Texas-based company best known for its RadioShack electronics stores. ...

From the beginning, AOL included online games in its mix of products; many classic and casual games were included in the original PlayNet software system. In the early years of AOL the company introduced many additional innovative online interactive titles and games, including: Internet games (also known as online games) are games that are played online via the Internet. ...

• Graphical chat environments Habitat (1986-1988) and Club Caribe (1988) from LucasArts.
• The first online interactive fiction series QuantumLink Serial by Tracy Reed (1988).
• Quantum Space, the first fully automated Play by email game (1989-1991).
• The original Dungeons & Dragons title Neverwinter Nights from Stormfront Studios (1991-1997), the first Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) to depict the adventure with graphics instead of text (1991).
• The first chat room-based text role-playing game Black Bayou (1996-2004), a horror role-playing game from Hecklers Online and ANTAGONIST, Inc..

In 2008 Neverwinter Nights was honored (along with Everquest and World of Warcraft) at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for advancing the art form of MMORPG games. Habitat was an early and technologically influentual online role-playing game developed by Lucasfilm Games and made available as a beta test in 1987 by Quantum Link, an online service for the Commodore 64 computer and the corporate progenitor to America Online. ... Club Caribe was one of the first graphical online worlds. ... LucasArts is an American video game developer and publisher. ... The QuantumLink Serial by Tracy Reed on AOL (1988-89) was the first episodic online story. ... Tracy Reed is an American writer who created the first episodic online story, the QuantumLink Serial on AOL (then called Quantum Computer Services). ... Quantum Space was the first play-by-email game offered as part of a major commercial online service. ... Play-by-mail games are games, of any type, played through postal mail or e-mail. ... This article is about the role-playing game. ... This article is about the AOL MMORPG. For the 2002 computer role-playing game, see Neverwinter Nights. ... Stormfront Studios is a video game developer based in San Rafael, California, and has one of the longest creative histories in the industry. ... An image from World of Warcraft, one of the largest commercial MMORPGs as of 2004, based on active subscriptions. ... EverQuest, often called EQ, is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was released on March 16, 1999. ... World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW) is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment and is the fourth game in the Warcraft series, excluding expansion packs and the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. ... A Technology and Engineering Emmy Award is given by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) for outstanding achievement in technical or engineering development. ... An image from World of Warcraft, one of the largest commercial MMORPGs as of 2004, based on active subscriptions. ...

In February 1991 AOL for DOS was launched using a GeoWorks interface followed a year later by AOL for Windows. In October 1991, Quantum changed its name to America Online. These changes coincided with growth in pay-based online services, like Prodigy, CompuServe, and GEnie. AOL discontinued Q-Link and PC Link in the fall of 1994. This article is about the family of closely related operating systems for the IBM PC compatible platform. ... For the Japanese English education company or eikaiwa, please see the article GEOS (eikaiwa) GEOS (Graphic Environment Operating System) was an operating system from Berkeley Softworks (later GeoWorks). ... Prodigy Communications Corporation (Prodigy Services Corp. ... CompuServe, (in full, CompuServe Information Services, or CIS), was the first major commercial online service in the United States. ... For other uses, see Genie (disambiguation). ...

Growth

Case positioned AOL as the online service for people unfamiliar with computers, in particular contrast to CompuServe, which had long served the technical community. The PlayNet system that AOL licensed was the first online service to require use of proprietary software, rather than a standard terminal program; as a result it was able to offer a graphical user interface (GUI) instead of command lines, and was well ahead of the competition in emphasizing communication among members as a feature. This article is about the machine. ... CompuServe, (in full, CompuServe Information Services, or CIS), was the first major commercial online service in the United States. ... Proprietary software is software with restrictions on copying and modifying as enforced by the proprietor. ... GUI redirects here. ...

In particular was the Chat Room concept from PlayNet, as opposed to the previous paradigm of CB-style channels. Chat Rooms allowed a large group of people with similar interests to convene and hold conversations in real time, including: A chat room or chatroom is a term used primarily by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. ... A typical CB base station. ...

• Private rooms - created by any user. Hold up to 23 people.
• Conference rooms - created with permission of AOL. Hold up to 48 people and often moderated.
• Auditoriums - created with permission of AOL. Consisted of a stage and an unlimited number of rows. What happened on the stage was viewable by everybody in the auditorium but what happened within individual rows, of up to 27 people, was viewable only by the people within those rows.

In March 1994, AOL added access to USENET to the features it offered. Usenet (USEr NETwork) is a global, decentralized, distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name. ...

AOL quickly surpassed GEnie, and by the mid-1990s, it passed Prodigy (which for several years allowed AOL advertising) and CompuServe. For other uses, see Genie (disambiguation). ... Prodigy Communications Corporation (Prodigy Services Corp. ... CompuServe, (in full, CompuServe Information Services, or CIS), was the first major commercial online service in the United States. ...

Originally, AOL charged its users an hourly fee, but in 1996 this changed and a flat rate of $19.99 a month was charged. Within three years, AOL's userbase grew to 10 million people. During this time, AOL connections would be flooded with users trying to get on, and many canceled their accounts due to constant busy signals (this was often joked "AOL" standing for "Always Off-Line").

AOL was quickly running out of room in 1996 for its network at the Vienna, VA campus and moved to Dulles, VA a short distance away. The move to Dulles took place in mid-1996 and provided room for future growth. Vienna is a town located in Fairfax County, Virginia. ... Dulles is an unincorporated area in Loudoun County, Virginia. ...

AOL was relatively late in providing access to the open Internet. Originally, only some Internet features were accessible through a proprietary interface but eventually it became possible to run other Internet software while logged in through AOL.

Change in focus

U.S. AOL Subscribers Q201-Q407

Since its merger with Time Warner, the value of AOL has dropped from its $240 billion high. It has seen similar losses among its subscription rate. It has since attempted to reposition itself as a content provider similar to companies such as Yahoo! as opposed to an Internet service provider which delivered content only to subscribers in what was termed a "walled garden". 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. A walled garden, with regards to media content, refers to a closed set or exclusive set of information services provided for users (a method of creating a monopoly or securing an information system). ... Official Live8 DVD, released in November 2005 Live 8 was a series of concurrent benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. ...

• 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.

• AOL eventually announced plans to offer subscribers classic television programs for free with commercials inserted via its new IN2TV service. At the time of launch, AOL made available Warner Bros. Television's vast library of programs, with Welcome Back Kotter as its marquee offering.

• In 2006, AOL informed its American customers that it would be increasing the price of its dial-up access to $25.90. The increase was part of an effort to migrate the service's remaining dial-up users to broadband, as the increased price was the same price they had been charging for monthly DSL access.^[12] However, AOL has since started offering their services for $9.95 a month for unlimited dial-up access.^[13]

• On April 3, 2006, AOL announced that it was retiring the full name "America Online"; the official name of the service is now "AOL", and the full name of the TimeWarner subdivision is "AOL, LLC.^[14]

• On August 2, 2006, AOL announced that they would give away e-mail accounts and software previously available only to its paying customers provided the customer accesses AOL or AOL.com through a non-AOL-owned access method (otherwise known as "third party transit", "bring your own access", or "BYOA"). The move was designed to reduce costs associated with the "Walled Garden" business model by reducing usage of AOL-owned access points and shifting members with high-speed internet access from client-based usage to the more lucrative advertising provider, AOL.com. The change from paid to free was also designed to slow the rate of members canceling their accounts and defecting to Microsoft Hotmail, Yahoo!, or other free e-mail providers. According to AOL CEO Randy Falco, as of December 2007, the conversion rate of accounts from paid access to free access is over 80%.^[15]

• In December 2006, in order to cut operating costs, AOL decided to cease using US-based call centers to provide customer service. They drastically downsized Stateside corporate operations as well. Two weeks before Christmas, thousands of workers were put on notice that their positions were being eliminated altogether, or being replaced with outsourced employees. On January 28, 2007, the last domestic AOL owned and operated call center (based in Oklahoma City) closed its doors, and, during October 2007, the last call center in Canada was also shut down. All customer service calls are now handled by outsourced representatives in Ogden, Utah, India, the Philippines, and Mexico.

In2TV is a joint-service offered by AOL and Warner Bros. ... Warner Bros. ... Welcome Back, Kotter is an American television sitcom that originally aired on the ABC network from 1975 to 1979. ... Dial-up access is a form of Internet access via telephone line. ... USD redirects here. ... DSL redirects here. ... is the 93rd day of the year (94th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about a U.S.-specific corporate form; for a general discussion of entities with limited liability, see corporation. ... is the 214th day of the year (215th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... Hotmail is a free webmail e-mail service, which is accessible via a web browser. ... Yahoo redirects here. ... Customer service (also known as Client Service) is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. ... For other uses, see Christmas (disambiguation). ... is the 28th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... Downtown Oklahoma City The State Capitol of Oklahoma From The South Motto: Nickname: Capital of the New Century Founded 1889 Incorporated County Oklahoma County Cleveland County Canadian County Borough {{{borough}}} Parrish {{{parrish}}} Mayor Mick Cornett Area  - Total  - Water 1,608. ... Ogden sign over Washington Boulevard at the Ogden River; toward downtown Ogden is a city in and the county seat of Weber County,[3] Utah, United States. ...

Moving of headquarters

On September 17, 2007, AOL announced that it was moving its corporate headquarters from Dulles, Virginia to New York, New York^[16] and combining its various advertising units into a new subsidiary called Platform A. This action follows several advertising acquisitions, most notably advertising.com, and highlights the company's new focus on advertising-driven business models. AOL created animated cartoons in 2008 to explain behavioral targeting to its users, showing how a user's past visits to other Web sites may determine the content of advertising they see in the future.^[17] AOL management stressed that "significant operations" will remain in Dulles, which includes the company's access services and modem banks. They then changed their mind four days later.^[18] is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... Dulles is an unincorporated area in Loudoun County, Virginia. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... Behavioral targeting or behavioural targeting is a technique used by online publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns. ...

By the end of September 2007 as part of preparation for the New York move, AOL completed the closure of its former primary Network Operations Center, Reston Technology Center, which it sold to Sprint Nextel in early 2007. This sale enabled AOL to consolidate its Northern Virginia operations from three sites (Dulles, Manassas, Reston) to two (Dulles and Manassas; personnel primarily went to Dulles, while machines moved to Manassas). AOL took advantage of the move to both reduce its overall hardware inventory and to determine a "right size" for its Network Operations Center staff after consolidating the three sites into two. A view of the Reston Town Center Reston is an internationally known planned community whose goal was to revolutionize post-World War II concepts of land use and residential/corporate development in American suburbia. ... Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) is the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States with 52. ...

As part of the impending move to New York and the restructuring of responsibilities at the Dulles headquarters complex after the Reston move, AOL CEO Randy Falco announced on October 15, 2007 plans to lay off 2000 employees worldwide by the end of 2007, beginning "immediately". That evening, over 750 employees at Dulles alone received notices to attend early morning meetings the next day;^[19] those employees were laid off on October 16, 2007, though the employees would remain on the payroll until December 14, 2007 in accordance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. Other employees whose groups were due for phase-out as part of the restructuring were informed on October 16, 2007 that they would be kept on until December 14, 2007 to complete any outstanding tasks, after which they would be laid off. The reduction in force was so large that virtually every conference room within the Dulles complex was reserved for the day as a "Special Purpose Room", where various aspects of the layoff process were conducted for outgoing employees; remaining employees at Dulles were quick to dub the mass layoff "Bloody Tuesday" in online blogs and news reports.^[20] An unspecified number of staff at the former Compuserve facility in Columbus, OH were also released, as well as the entire Tucson Quality Analysis shop, a number of AOL employees working at the former Netscape facility in Mountain View, CA, the development team in France, and practically the entire Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada member services call center site. The end result was a near 40% layoff across the board at AOL, including a substantial number of Systems Operations personnel, a significant change from previous layoffs where SysOps employees routinely suffered only minor personnel reductions..^[21] An additional round of layoffs, mostly confined to analysis groups and the staff at AOL Voice Services in Halifax, Nova Scotia, occurred on December 11 and December 12, 2007.^[22] Randy Falco is the present AOL CEO and board chairman. ... is the 288th day of the year (289th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... CompuServe, (in full, CompuServe Information Services, or CIS), was the first major commercial online service in the United States. ... Nickname: Location in the state of Ohio, USA Coordinates: , Country State Counties Franklin, Fairfield, Delaware Government  - Mayor Michael B. Coleman (D) Area  - City 212. ... , Tucson (pronounced ) is the seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States, located 118 miles (188 km) southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles (98 km) north of the U.S.-Mexico border. ... Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. ... For other uses, see Moncton (disambiguation). ... The City of Halifax (1841-1996) was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia, and the largest city in Atlantic Canada. ... is the 345th day of the year (346th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 346th day of the year (347th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ...

Other business decisions

• In 2005, AOL (along with Telepictures Productions) launched TMZ.com, one of the leading celebrity news and gossip sources on the web. TMZ.com has become known for its quickness to break celebrity news, often accompanied by exclusive videos and photos.^[23]

• On February 6, 2008, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes announced that Time Warner would split AOL's internet access and advertising businesses into two, with the possibility of later selling the internet access division.^[24]

Telepictures is an American television syndication firm established in 1978 by Michael Garin. ... TMZ.com is a celebrity gossip and news website, the result of a collaboration between AOL and Telepictures Productions, a division of Warner Bros. ... is the 37th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Era (or Anno Domini), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... Jeffrey L. Bewkes is the President and COO of the Time Warner media conglomerate. ...

Controversies

Community leaders

Prior to mid 2005, AOL used volunteers called Community Leaders, or CLs, to monitor chatrooms, message boards, and libraries. Some community leaders were recruited for content design and maintenance using a proprietary language and interface called RAINMAN, although most content maintenance was performed by partner and internal employees. The AOL Community Leader Program or AOL CLP was the official name for the large group of volunteers who moderated chat rooms, message boards, and download libraries. ... For the 1988 film, see Rain Man. ...

In 1999, a class action lawsuit was filed against AOL citing violations of U.S. labor laws in its usage of CLs. The Department of Labor investigated but came to no conclusions, closing their investigation in 2001. In light of these events, AOL began drastically reducing the responsibilities and privileges of its volunteers in 2000. The program was eventually ended on June 8, 2005. Current Community Leaders at the time were offered 12 months of credit on their accounts. In law, a class action is an equitable procedural device used in litigation for determining the rights of and remedies, if any, for large numbers of people whose cases involve common questions of law and fact. ... The United States Department of Labor is a Cabinet department of the United States government responsible for occupational safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits, re-employment services, and some economic statistics. ... is the 159th day of the year (160th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Billing disputes

AOL has faced a number of lawsuits over claims that it has been slow to stop billing people after their accounts have been canceled, either by the company or the user. In addition, AOL changed its method of calculating used minutes in response to a class action lawsuit. Previously, AOL would add fifteen seconds to the time a user was connected to the service and round up to the next whole minute (thus, a person who used the service for 11 minutes and 46 seconds would be charged for 13 minutes). AOL claimed this was to account for sign on/sign off time, but because this practice was not made known to its customers, the plaintiffs won (some also pointed out that signing on and off did not always take 15 seconds, especially when connecting via another ISP). AOL disclosed its connection time calculation methods to all of its customers and credited them with extra free hours. In addition, the AOL software would notify the user of exactly how long they were connected and how many minutes they were being charged.

AOL was sued by the Ohio Attorney General in October 2003 for improper billing practices. The case was settled on June 8, 2005. AOL agreed to resolve any consumer complaints filed with the Ohio AG's office. In December of 2006, AOL agreed to provide restitution to Florida consumers to settle the case filed against them by the Florida Attorney General.^[25] Their billing practices violated Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.^[26] The office of Attorney General of Ohio was first created by the Ohio General Assembly by statute in 1846. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... Restitution is the name given to a form of legal relief in which the plaintiff recovers something from the defendant that belongs, or should belong, to the plaintiff. ... This article is about the U.S. State of Florida. ... The Florida Attorney General is an elected official in the U.S. state of Florida. ...

Account cancellation

In response to approximately 300 consumer complaints, then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office began an inquiry of AOL’s customer service policies. The investigation revealed that the company had an elaborate scheme for rewarding employees who purported to retain or "save" subscribers who had called to cancel their Internet service. In many instances, such retention was done against subscribers’ wishes, or without their consent. Under the scheme, consumer service personnel received bonuses worth tens of thousands of dollars if they could successfully dissuade or "save" half of the people who called to cancel service. For several years, AOL had instituted minimum retention or "save" percentages, which consumer representatives were expected to meet. These bonuses, and the minimum "save" rates accompanying them, had the effect of employees not honoring cancellations, or otherwise making cancellation unduly difficult for consumers. See also Attorney General. ... Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959 ) is an American lawyer, politician and the current Governor of New York. ...

Many customers complained that AOL personnel ignored their demands to cancel service and stop billing. On August 24, 2005, America Online agreed to pay $1.25 million to the state of New York and reformed its customer service procedures. Under the agreement, AOL will no longer require its customer service representatives to meet a minimum quota for customer retention in order to receive a bonus.^[27] is the 236th day of the year (237th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

On June 13, 2006, a man named Vincent Ferrari documented his account cancellation phone call in a blog post, 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.^[28] is the 164th day of the year (165th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Vincent Ferrari Live on WNBC Vincent Ferrari is a New York blogger who became famous in 2006 for his dealings with AOL and its customer service. ...

On July 19, 2006, AOL's entire retention manual was released on the Internet.^[29] (7MB PDF). is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Instance of retaining (e. ...

On August 3, 2006, Time Warner announced that the company would be dissolving AOL's retention centers due to its profits hinging on $1 billion in cost cuts. The company estimates that it will lose more than six million subscribers over the next year.^[30] is the 215th day of the year (216th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Time Warner Inc. ...

Software

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• In 2000, AOL was served with an $8 billion lawsuit alleging that its (now outdated) AOL 5.0 software caused significant difficulties for users attempting to use third-party Internet service providers. The lawsuit sought damages of up to $1000 for each user that had downloaded the software cited at the time of the lawsuit. AOL later agreed to a settlement of $15 million, without admission of wrongdoing. ^[31] Now, the AOL software has 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 use only the applications they wish to use, especially if they do not favor the AOL Browser.

• AOL 9.0 was once identified by Stopbadware as being "under investigation"^[32] for installing additional software without disclosure, and modifying browser preferences, toolbars, and icons. However, as of the release of AOL 9.0 VR (Vista Ready) on January 26, 2007, it is no longer considered badware due to changes AOL made in the software.^[33]

Stopbadware. ... is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ...

Usenet newsgroups

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. Usenet (USEr NETwork) is a global, decentralized, distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name. ... Usenet (USEr NETwork) is a global, decentralized, distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name. ... Eternal September (also Great September, September that never ended, perpetual September, or endless September) is a Usenet slang expressions for the period of time beginning September 1993. ...

Later, AOL discontinued providing access to Usenet on June 25, 2005 ^[34]. No official details were provided as to the cause of decommissioning Usenet access, except providing users the suggestion to access Usenet services from a third-party, Google Groups. Currently, AOL provides community-based Message Boards in lieu of Usenet. is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Google Groups is a free groups and mailing list service from Google. ... A typical Internet forum discussion, with common elements such as quotes and spoiler brackets A page from a forum showcasing emoticons and Internet slang An Internet forum is a web application for holding discussions and posting user generated content. ...

Terms of Service (TOS)

AOL has a detailed set of guidelines and expectations for users on their service, known as the Terms of Service (TOS). It is separated into three different sections: Member Agreement, Community Guidelines and Privacy Policy.^[35] In the United Kingdom, TOS is known as Conditions of Service (COS) as the term TOS could have been considered inappropriate by the majority of British users.^[36] All three agreements are presented to users at time of registration and digital acceptance is achieved when they access the AOL service. Terms of Service (often abbreviated as ToS) are rules by which one must agree to abide by in order to use a service. ...

There have been many complaints over rules that govern an AOL user's conduct. Some users disagree with the TOS, citing the guidelines are too strict to follow coupled with the fact the TOS may change without users being made aware. A considerable cause for this was likely due to alleged censorship of user-generated content during the earlier years of growth for AOL.^{[37][38][39][40]}

Certified e-mail

In early 2005, AOL stated its intention to implement certified e-mail, which will allow companies to send email to users with whom they have pre-existing business relationships, with a visual indication that the email is from a trusted source and without the risk that the email messages might be blocked or stripped by spam filters. Certified e-mail is a system by which an internet service provider allows someone to bypass spam filters when sending e-mail messages to its subscribers, in return for a small pre-paid fee (typically a fraction of a cent) per message sent. ... A mail filter is a piece of software which takes an input of an email message. ...

This decision has drawn fire from MoveOn, which characterizes the program as an "e-mail tax", and the EFF, which characterizes it as a shakedown of non profits.^[41] A website called Dearaol.com was launched, with an online petition and a blog that garnered hundreds of signatures from people and organizations expressing their opposition to AOL's use of goodmail. MoveOn is a progressive public policy organization that has raised millions of dollars for Democratic Party candidates in the United States. ... The term EFF may refer to: The Election Fighting Fund, a fund which the NUWSS set up to raise money for the early Labour Party during the early 1910s. ...

Esther Dyson defended the move in a New York Times editorial saying "I hope Goodmail succeeds, and that it has lots of competition. I also think it and its competitors will eventually transform into services that more directly serve the interests of mail recipients. Instead of the fees going to Goodmail and EON, they will also be shared with the individual recipients.".^[42] Esther Dyson in San Francisco in 2005 Esther Dyson (born 14 July 1951 in Zürich, Switzerland) is a self-described authority on emerging digital technology, and considered a founding member of the digerati. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

Other members of the antispam and blogging community are broadly critical of moveon.org and the EFF's attempts to characterize this as a "shakedown".

Tim Lee of the Technology Liberation Front posted an article that questioned the EFF's adopting a confrontational posture when dealing with private companies. Lee's article cited a series of discussions on Declan McCullagh's Politechbot mailing list on this subject between the EFF's Danny O'Brien and antispammer Suresh Ramasubramanian, who has also compared the EFF's tactics in opposing Goodmail to tactics used by Republican political strategist Karl Rove. Spamassassin developer Justin Mason posted some criticism of the EFF's and Moveon's "going overboard" in their opposition to the scheme. Declan McCullagh is a journalist and columnist for CNets news. ... Karl Christian Rove (born December 25, 1950) was Deputy Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush until his resignation on 31 August 2007. ... SpamAssassin is a computer program released under the Apache License 2. ...

The dearaol.com campaign lost momentum and disappeared, with the last post to the now defunct dearaol.com blog - "AOL starts the shakedown" being made on May 9, 2006. is the 129th day of the year (130th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Search data

Main article: AOL search data scandal

On August 4, 2006, AOL released a compressed text file on one of its websites containing twenty million search keywords for over 650,000 users over a 3-month period between March 1, 2006 and May 31, intended for research purposes. AOL pulled the file from public access by August 7, but not before its wide distribution on the Internet by others. Derivative research, titled "A Picture of Search" was published by authors Pass, Chowdhury and Torgeson for The First International Conference on Scalable Information Systems. On August 4, 2006, AOL released a compressed text file on one of its websites containing twenty million search keywords for over 650,000 users over a 3-month period, intended for research purposes. ... is the 216th day of the year (217th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In computer science, a keyword is an identifier which indicates a specific command. ... is the 60th day of the year (61st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 151st day of the year (152nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 219th day of the year (220th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

The data are being used by Web sites such as AOLstalker for entertainment purposes, where users of AOLstalker are encouraged to judge AOL clients based on the humorousness of personal details revealed by search behavior.

As of December 11, 2007, Google and the Microsoft search engine "store personal information for 18 months" and Yahoo! and AOL "retain search requests for 13 months".^[43] is the 345th day of the year (346th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... This article is about the corporation. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... Yahoo redirects here. ...

Company purchases

Main article: List of AOL acquisitions

Company sales

AOL (Time Warner) has sold a number of its sub-companies in Europe. AOL Europe has six million users, but its subscription base had been steadily declining. In 2005, 287,000 European AOL online users migrated to other service providers.^[44] In September 2006, AOL Germany's ISP business (AOL Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG) was sold for $863m (€675m) to Telecom Italia.^[45] AOL's German web portal (AOL Deutschland), however, is now operated by then newly founded AOL Deutschland Medien GmbH which still is a subsidiary of Time Warner. Today, AOL Deutschland offers virtually all free services of AOL.com (see below) in German versions as well as some own products, such as an AOL VISA card.[2](German) Time Warner Inc. ... Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH) is a type of business structure in Germany, similar to limited liability company in the United States. ... Limited partnership Partnerships may be formed in the legal forms of General Partnership (Offene Handelsgesellschaft, OHG) or Limited Partnership (Kommanditgesellschaft, KG). ... Telecom Italia is formerly a partially state-owned Italian telco. ... Visa or VISA has several meanings: Look up visa in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Visa (document) — a document required to enter a specific country. ...

In October 2006, AOL UK's ISP business was sold for $688m (£370m) to Carphone Warehouse.^[46][47] The Carphone Warehouse Group PLC (LSE: CPW), known as The Carphone Warehouse, is Europes largest independent mobile phone retailer, with over 1,700 stores across Europe. ... Logo Main office, in Acton, West London The Carphone Warehouse is (as of 2004) Europes largest mobile phone retailer, with over 1,300 stores across Europe. ...

Notable people associated with AOL

• Marc Andreessen (Netscape co-founder)
• Jim Barksdale (former director)
• John Barnes (former head researcher)
• Randall Boe (Executive Vice President and General Counsel)
• Jan Brandt (former President of Marketing)
• Jason Calacanis (former CEO of Weblogs, Inc. and former GM of Netscape)
• Steve Case (former CEO and Board Chairman)
• Mary Cheney (former Vice President for Consumer Advocacy)
• Lary Crews (Former Online Campus Writing Instructor)
• Randy Falco (CEO and Board Chairman)