One night, I awoke out of a dead sleep, and jumped to my computer, and instantly began typing up an article about David Letterman. I kept going for ten minutes, until I realized I had dreamed it all. There was no article to write; I was simply typing up the same meaningless phrases that we all always used: “LADY GAGA PANTLESS ON LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN,” or some such.
AOL Hell: An AOL Content Slave Speaks Out.
posted by Horace Rumpole
on Jun 17, 2011 -
126 comments
A little ahead of schedule,
Yahoo,
AOL and
Bing have released their lists of items most often searched for in 2010. Google hasn't released their list but you can see popular searches using their
Insights program.
posted by morganannie
on Dec 2, 2010 -
53 comments
Remember AOL Time Warner, the poster child of dotcom corporate hubris? It's still around, if only for a few more days. On December 9, the current media megacorp will fraction off former computer network behemoth AOL as a web portal firm and online brand. And what will that brand be? It will be a stock photo superimposed with
a white Helvetica "Aol." And, well,
that's it.
[more inside]
posted by ardgedee
on Nov 23, 2009 -
145 comments
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)
posted by filthy light thief
on Aug 7, 2009 -
24 comments
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.
posted by Kattullus
on Sep 22, 2008 -
20 comments
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.
posted by SharQ
on Apr 17, 2008 -
25 comments
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.
posted by granted
on Jul 18, 2006 -
38 comments
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.
posted by digaman
on Feb 4, 2006 -
46 comments
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?
posted by NortonDC
on Jan 25, 2005 -
53 comments
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.
posted by etoile
on Sep 2, 2004 -
8 comments
Perhaps you've seen the new MSN commercials that use M$'s "spam-blocking" technology to support their ISP service. Maybe you've read fluff pieces like
these, where AOL and Microsoft execs are allowed to wax poetic about their deep anti-spam convictions:
"'I get spam too, and I am as fed up with it as all of our members are,' AOL chief executive Jonathan F. Miller said yesterday."
"'To help keep intruders at bay,' Microsoft said, "we must all do our part.'"
So what's
this all about?
"'AOL and Microsoft argue there is a place for legitimate unsolicited e-mail in the marketplace,' said Marc Berejka, Microsoft's senior director of public policy."
posted by Pinwheel
on May 9, 2003 -
19 comments
AOL to offer blogging services. Ninety-nine per cent of bloggers won't make money," says Copeland."But when we've got 10 million bloggers a couple years from now, I'm confident that 100,000 of them will be uniquely valuable to advertisers."
posted by sixdifferentways
on Feb 13, 2003 -
30 comments
Are you using AOL IM at work? Chatting with your buds or SO while you should probably be working? Well, in a desperate attempt to turn some kind of profit, AOL is willing to sell your boss the ability to be in on the conversation, too.
posted by crunchland
on Nov 5, 2002 -
21 comments
AOL kills the pop-up? "By ending third-party pop-ups and merchandise sales we are giving our members what they want," says Chief Executive Jon Miller. Clever strategy. Since there's now hardly any new users to attract to their service, they're trying to appeal to slightly more experienced net users. Are you annoyed by pop-ups? Would you sign up to AOL?
posted by tapeguy
on Oct 15, 2002 -
48 comments
AOL Joins the "Irregularity" Parade? "AOL converted legal disputes into ad deals. It negotiated a shift in revenue from one division to another, bolstering its online business. It sold ads on behalf of online auction giant eBay Inc., booking the sale of eBay's ads as AOL's own revenue. AOL bartered ads for computer equipment in a deal with Sun Microsystems Inc. AOL counted stock rights as ad and commerce revenue in a deal with a Las Vegas firm called PurchasePro.com Inc."
posted by owillis
on Jul 18, 2002 -
17 comments
