I remember AOL it was a dial-up network with its own custom GUI that set up a TCP/IP stack at the time that getting on the Internet with WINSOCK programs was di

I remember AOL it was a dial-up network with its own custom GUI that set up a TCP/IP stack at the time that getting on the Internet with WINSOCK programs was difficult because you had to configure a SLIP or PPP profile with other ISPS. AOL made it easy for anyone to get on the Internet, they mailed out floppy disks for a free month for example. The hard part was canceling the service and getting them to stop billing you once you stopped using their service. AOL software grew and went on CD-ROMs, at least with floppies you could reformat them and use them for other stuff, the CD-ROMs were drink coasters and made wind mobiles out of them. AOL software grew when they merged with Time Warner, the AOL software was a web browser and media surfer and email client. When broadband began to take over there was a $20/month option to add in your AOL account to it and use it over broadband. If you want AOL 2.0 today you have to have a phone company or cable company bundle their broadband service with the software that is part web browser, chat client, email reader, news reader, media surfer, stock ticker, and other stuff rolled into one app. Google or Apple if they wanted to do this would have to lay down some fiber optics to provide broadband Internet access and then bundle their AOL 2.0 software with it. It is not a cheap thing to do, the dial-up modem was better because you could plug a modem into any phone line and get Internet, but it was slow. Today you need a high speed phone line and a DSL modem, cable modem, some sort of high speed modem that uses fiber optic, etc. They company has to send someone to install the high speed cable and modem to hook you up, and it is not so easy to do that these days. You have to wait for someone to be available to do that, and hope there is no technical delays. AOL was killed by broadband Internet and Web 2.0 sites replacing what AOL software did. Oddly enough you still find the elderly using AOL dial-up for $35/month on really old Windows PCs. They don't want to lose their aol.com address.