The difference here is that while AOL was a completely walled garden, many of the various players here have APIs that you can connect to. Then you have interme

The difference here is that while AOL was a completely walled garden, many of the various players here have APIs that you can connect to. Then you have intermediary companies like IFTTT and Zapier that are glue between those various services. Not that I don't agree with the main point - moving from completely open to little fiefdoms, but I think it's an imperfect analogy given the push towards everything having APIs for connectivity between them.