MetaFilter posts tagged with AOL

AOL: Digital journalism without the burden of legacy infrastructure

filthy light thief — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:52:34 -0800

Almost three years ago, AOL started on a path towards being a "low-cost producer of high-quality content at scale" when they purchase Weblogs, Inc. in late 2006. At the beginning of 2009, AOL count[ed] more than 75 sites in its publishing portfolio and plans to add 30 more in the coming year, all gathered under Media Glow. AOL currently has approximately 1,500 content-writing staff, around 1,000 of those people are working full time for AOL, the rest are freelancing. That's twice the number from a year ago, and AOL has set the goal of doubling or tripling the total by next year. The TechCrunch article states that these writers include former journalists at BusinessWeek, New York Times, USA Today, ESPN, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Consumer Reports, Condé Nast and scores of regional and national newspapers and magazines. In an interview, Marty Moe, SVP of AOL Media, said: "Principally, we have none of the legacy costs associated with producing print publications, for example. We don't own printing presses, or fleets of delivery trucks. We don't have the elaborate editorial structures geared to producing products over a printing press." (via)

Live performances at AOL Sessions

Kattullus — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 04:49:06 -0800

AOL Sessions has live videos from more than 150 different artists specially recorded for the series. Here are just a few of the artists on offer: Paul McCartney, Mary J. Blige, Modest Mouse, Tori Amos, Robyn, Tom Petty, Rhymefest, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Natasha Bedingfield, Cat Power, Toby Keith, Lil' Wayne, Robert Plant, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kelly Rowland, Weezer and Brian Wilson. To the left of the videos there's a Q&A link that has short interview videos with the artists as well as behind the scenes footage and longer interviews.

Search engine battle heats up

SharQ — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:52:09 -0800

According to ComScore, Google takes 59.8% of search traffic in the US, leaving Yahoo, MSN and smaller players to fight for the scraps. Pretty pie-chart here. Slightly different numbers are available from Compete and Hitwise, but Google still rules the roost.

about:mozilla

ardgedee — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:29:21 -0800

Welcome to Mosaic Communications Corporation! It was 1994, and the World Wide Web as we know it today was about to be born. Mosaic Communications didn't invent the web and didn't even invent the graphical browser. The Netscape browser and Netscape server were instrumental in commercializing the internet. mcom.com was one of the standard starting points for anybody on the Web, and this little slice of history can help the young'uns understand what the Web used to be like. Reconstructed from archived files for your benefit by one jwz, a task epic in the telling.

At least the shipping's free.

MaryDellamorte — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 02:22:36 -0800

You can own your very own AOL 1.0 floppy disk for the low price of $4,995.00. Think this is absurd? Well, it's been done before.

THE DEATH OF ROCK AND ROLL VIA WEB 2.0

loquacious — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 11:51:09 -0800

It's official. The raw evil of AOL has joined forces with the unbridled hubris of Web 2.0 and killed Rock and Roll. I blame BoingBoing.

Those Bastards!

granted — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 13:56:23 -0800

Think of Cancellation Calls as Sales Leads! Why did Vincent have such a hard time cancelling his AOL account? It turns out that his customer service rep was just following the AOL Retention Manual, a copy of which was sent to consumerist.com. Nicholas Graham, executive vice president of AOL Corporate Communications, had sent Vincent a formal apology (Google cache - right now his site's been pummeled beyond capacity) saying, "The employee in question violated our customer service guidelines and practices, and everything that AOL believes to be important in customer care." Um...really? New York Times article on the cancellation-call hoopla. via digg.

The AOL Cancellation Battle

JPowers — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 14:05:04 -0800

In which one man sets out to cancel his AOL account: the mp3 phone call (backup link), the blog post.

AIM Pages

tellurian — Wed, 10 May 2006 23:09:50 -0800

You have all dropped your MySpace profiles and jumped to AIM Pages, haven't you? [via]

The Liquid Crystal Teat

Sparx — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 13:56:07 -0800

AOL launches in2tv. Why pay for Lost when you can be watching Wonder Woman for free? Maybe because you own a mac or hate streaming media. (Ok, so it's probably all over teh interwebs by now - but hey - free Wonder Woman!)

Stamping Out Free Email

digaman — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 11:18:51 -0800

When you really, really want your email to arrive at its destination: now you gotta pay postage. Another brilliant, forward-looking idea for monetizing-the-Internet^TM from the wizards at AOL and Yahoo.

Time Harbinger

Protocols of the Elders of Awesome — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 04:38:35 -0800

Until recently solely targeting luddites thru the medium of nubile women with Matrix-style code flittering over their tits, AOL UK has changed tack with a batshit orgy of self-Godwinisation for their latest television advertisement. [partially Adobe Flash video]

chatroom lawsuit

vetiver — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 16:50:41 -0800

We gave him crap. I'm not going to deny it. "An AOL chatroom named 'Romance — Older Men' was the scene of unbearable humiliation for one chatter, according to a new lawsuit."

Google buys 5% of AOL

Tlogmer — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 14:22:16 -0800

Google buys a 5% stake in AOL. For ... one billion dollars.

That's how much per link?!?

clevershark — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 07:45:40 -0800

Does AOL's acquisition of Weblogs, Inc. make financial sense? Yet another excellent quantitative analysis from Tristan Louis, who seems to spend a lot of time digging for numbers relating to the so-called blogosphere -- see also his granular analysis of what distinguishes A-list from B-list bloggers and another analysis more specifically examining Technorati links, as well as his analysis of the sort of cash Gawker is paying out which was discussed here earlier. Whatever the price investors don't seem to be hitting the panic button at the deal.

You've got Weblogs!

braun_richard — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 04:53:03 -0800

AOL is buying Weblogs, Inc! Reuters and Paidcontent.org say it's for at least $25 million.

AIM owns you.

XQUZYPHYR — Sun, 13 Mar 2005 13:44:23 -0800

"You waive any right to privacy." AOL has just updated the terms of service for Instant Messanger, which include agreeing to the new requirement that AOL owns everything you write, has the right to reproduce it at will, and that you waive all requirements for prior approval to do so.

End of endless September

NortonDC — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 17:19:48 -0800

The end of the endless September. "America Online on Tuesday confirmed that it will stop supporting access to newsgroups." Thus ends what many labeled the greatest plague upon the Internet, the (triple posting) barbarian horde that descended upon Usenet when AOL added Usenet access for its members.

This is when Usenet returns to utility, readability and civility. Right?

Inexcusably borderline linkage - Use chemicals

Pretty_Generic — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 21:53:04 -0800

The Milk Drop visualisation now comes by default with Time Warner's Winamp, and is the greatest thing ever.

Mmmmm...shiny

rooftop secrets — Fri, 26 Nov 2004 00:47:16 -0800

Endless AOL CDs can fill your mailbox, but some people seem to love them. Others have found creative outlets for their AOL junk mail. Still more people simply love to collect the buggers, although some for grander purposes than others.

We always loved you.

Keyser Soze — Thu, 11 Nov 2004 08:49:30 -0800

Rest in peace, Nullsoft Winamp.

IM: Not Just for Kids Anymore

etoile — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 08:29:42 -0800

Adults are picking up instant messaging in record numbers, with 50% of those over 35 using various systems. This study was funded by AOL, which has a major stake in the instant messaging market through its popular AIM software. But most people who use IM in the workplace are still using free and unsecured systems, despite the availability of secure versions in enterprise software and products like IM Secure.

File under 'Seeing Art Everywhere' ... I guess

anastasiav — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 21:44:36 -0800

The AOL CD Preservation Guild & Museum

Changing the World of Internet and Politics

chill — Thu, 09 Oct 2003 06:04:24 -0800

What do Al Jazeera, AOL, Salam Pax and Sheffield City Council all have in common? Well according to PoliticsOnline they are all "Changing the World of Internet and Politics"...

Blog Change Bot

UKnowForKids — Sat, 26 Jul 2003 10:27:31 -0800

Blog Change Bot is an AOL Instant Messenger-based bot that will send you an IM whenever your favorite blogs are updated. (via Blogroots; more inside)