AOL may buy AT&T broadband in a deal that could allow them to own the browser, net access, data pipes, and content for a vast majority of internet usage and users. How far will AOL/TW go to control any and all forms of media? Are hearings to break the company up far off?
posted by mathowie
on Sep 10, 2001 -
14 comments
AOL jumps on the get-rich-quick bandwagon. "Every time you generate a new member for AOL who stays for 90 days, AOL will pay you $15. Imagine how much extra cash you could make! Make $20,000, $40,000, $80,000, $100,000 - the sky is the limit!" Wow, it almost sounds easier than working...
posted by mathowie
on Feb 14, 2000 -
1 comment
MovieFone (or 777film.com, or AOL/Moviefone if you want to be official) has long been my favorite place to look up movie showtimes, but lately I've been running into problems. The biggest one is this: if you search for movies by theater, then hit "more" a couple times, it reaches a limit of about 12 theaters. Here in LA, that limit corresponds to a 4-5 mile radius. The theater I want to look up movie times at is maybe 7-8 miles away, but no where in the interface is a real "search." It's all just lists and lists. Eventually, I found a list of local theaters (covering about a 20 mile radius) in the theater codes section, but it's not a real search engine, so looking up times at out of town theaters requires you to know the zip code of the place you're going to. I know they're trying to simplify their site by taking out a search engine, but what about the people that know exactly what they want? I use moviefone on the web because using it on a telephone requires you to navigate convoluted menu systems, but they've transferred the phone experience to the web quite well.
posted by mathowie
on Jan 16, 2000 -
2 comments
Salon is running a great article about the AOL/TimeWarner merger that brings up plenty of issues we should all be concerned about. I can't remember the last time a company merger affected so many. This deal touches everyone, from what my grandparents watch on TV at night to what I'll be allowed to see on my RoadRunner cable modem. Just thinking of how they're going to control TV, movies, music, news, and the internet sends chills up and down my spine.
posted by mathowie
on Jan 10, 2000 -
0 comments
I've pointed to fark.com before, because I find it one of the more amusing weblogs. While I was searching for pointers to MetaFilter today, I noticed they have
their referer logs in a public folder. What's great about it is seeing the search terms used on AOL's search engine. There's a few gems like "pokemon porn," "catholic girls playing in the mud," and "how to fake your own death." I see similar AOL searches in MetaFilter's logs. AOL is used by some freaky people.
posted by mathowie
on Dec 3, 1999 -
2 comments
Dontcha hate it when something like
Winamp gets bought out by AOL? It crashes a bit too much on my home system so I went looking for alternatives and was glad when I found
FreeAMP (it's GPL'ed to boot!). Take the high road, use the mp3 player that guarantees no AOL buyouts on your desktop.
posted by mathowie
on Sep 23, 1999 -
0 comments
