Tired of MSNBC?

January 19, 2005 7:27 AM

AOL News has moved out onto the Internet. Some of it is not accessible to non AOL members.
posted by wbm$tr (23 comments total)

Um... yay(?)
posted by PenDevil at 7:34 AM on January 19, 2005

best of the web!
posted by nequalsone at 7:37 AM on January 19, 2005

woo
posted by TwelveTwo at 7:44 AM on January 19, 2005

wbm$tr,
I'm not sure I understand, care to elaborate?
posted by Divine_Wino at 7:45 AM on January 19, 2005

I'm guessing it used to be an AOL members exclusive--though, I honestly can't imagine why I'd want to use that as a news source. Google News does a nice job of pseudo-omniscience.
posted by ThePrawn at 7:51 AM on January 19, 2005

I totally knew that dude.
posted by Divine_Wino at 7:54 AM on January 19, 2005

care to elaborate?

just that it didn't used to be a web site
posted by wbm$tr at 7:56 AM on January 19, 2005

Ah, so maybe AOL is starting to figure out they're better off being part of the web instead of attemptiing to BE the web?
posted by scheptech at 8:02 AM on January 19, 2005

Am I supposed to sign up for AOL? What is this?
posted by tpl1212 at 8:04 AM on January 19, 2005

Ummmm OK.
posted by Eekacat at 8:04 AM on January 19, 2005

c'mon man, this isn't any good at all.
posted by Divine_Wino at 8:25 AM on January 19, 2005

hay guys how do i make my aol softwarez run in linux?
posted by naxosaxur at 8:28 AM on January 19, 2005

Sorry, AOL is just one of many viruses that Linux can't be infected by.
posted by ThePrawn at 8:34 AM on January 19, 2005

In the new MeFi spirit of not pouncing on newbies, I'm going to control my instinctual rage about this FPP and just ask- so, wbm$tr, what's significant about AOL News? It's just another portal, with almost no original content. It's the same thing that exists in many, many other places. What benefit does AOL News give over MSNBC, CNN, BBC, or even Google News?
posted by mkultra at 8:35 AM on January 19, 2005

I was hoping someone would control their instinctual rage.
posted by Divine_Wino at 8:42 AM on January 19, 2005

Actually, this an ad posing as service. The point of this is not really to serve up news, it's to pimp AOL and Time Warner publications. Back when I was at AOL, and they were first talking about this, they were just going to have searches that lead to articles in magazines that you couldn't read, instead of ads for magazines that you can't read. This has some value added, at least, which says the UI people managed to win over the business people. Delivery of services based on contextual content is going to be AOL's new search strategy, and I bet it will get picked up by other search services. Chill on the rage and it's an interesting business model - kind of like those glossy mags that are mostly ads, but have some interesting content.
posted by beezy at 8:51 AM on January 19, 2005

Ah, so maybe AOL is starting to figure out they're better off being part of the web instead of attempting to BE the web?

yeah - that's precisely why i find it significant.
posted by wbm$tr at 9:01 AM on January 19, 2005

What is this... AOL... of which you speak?
posted by AspectRatio at 9:13 AM on January 19, 2005

This is postworthy insofar as we're seeing two of the internets beginning to merge, like single-celled organisms in some vast ethereal soup.

Mmmmm, soup.
posted by chicobangs at 9:37 AM on January 19, 2005

AOL stopped being useful, ahh, let's see...oh, wait ...it was NEVER useful..

move along folks, nothing to see here.....
posted by HuronBob at 9:41 AM on January 19, 2005

Soup is good. Lentils. Mmmmm.
posted by sklero at 9:42 AM on January 19, 2005

Mark Eats AOL
posted by Edible Energy at 10:13 AM on January 19, 2005

This must be part of AOLs campaign to make a Better Internet™.
posted by birdherder at 10:38 AM on January 19, 2005