4 ms·

I miss clients like this. It reminds me of a better time when the internet was young and fresh to me. It does amuse me that this written up on livejournal.

smitty1e 4y ago
I liked the Three Line Novel thing on AOL.
reaperducer 4y ago
It reminds me of a better time when the internet was young and fresh to me. I remember when AOL was seen as evil that was going to kill the open internet. It was the original "walled garden."
- imglorp 4y ago
  One might argue before that was CompuServ. Text only, dialup, massive BBS basically. Messaging, shopping, airline reservations and other connections. I wish someone could rescue the whole thing from tape and host it.
  - fsckboy 4y ago
    I wish someone could rescue the whole thing from tape and host it... on a PDP-10
- guessbest 4y ago
  It wasn't really a walled garden, though. I remember using the AOL client software to connect to the internet and then opening IE to browse internet sites like yahoo, geocities and slashdot. When the computer owner who let me borrow his computer saw me do this he was stunned. He didn't realize he was connected to the internet this whole time.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - zemo 4y ago
    right but that wasn't what AOL was trying to build; it's what happened in spite of their efforts, not because of them. Notice the prominent "channels" and "what's hot" buttons in the second screen shot? They're given a higher position in the ui hierarchy than "internet" for a reason. They were trying to create an experience where all of the content came from AOL itself. "Channels" were their content pipelines, they were hypermedia but everything within the content network of channels was created by AOL itself. It would be like someone hearing about the web and thinking that the way to "win" the web would be to "own all of the web pages".
  - TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
    > It wasn't really a walled garden, though It effectively was for millions of users who did not venture outside the AOL client.
    - hydr0 4y ago
      fwiw...AOL also introduced a web browser within their client and provided its users with 2mb of web hosting space. I hosted a bunch of my first web sites using it and learned about FTP.
      - TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
        That’s a great story to hear and lessons my negative views of AOL. Thanks for sharing it!
  - tablespoon 4y ago
    > It wasn't really a walled garden, though. I remember using the AOL client software to connect to the internet and then opening IE to browse internet sites like yahoo, geocities and slashdot. That wasn't always true. At some point internet access was a "feature" that was added to the walled-garden AOL. They famously added Usenet in September 1993. I can't find a date for web access, but I'd guess 1995.

smitty1e 4y ago

I liked the Three Line Novel thing on AOL.

reaperducer 4y ago

It reminds me of a better time when the internet was young and fresh to me. I remember when AOL was seen as evil that was going to kill the open internet. It was the original "walled garden."

imglorp 4y ago
One might argue before that was CompuServ. Text only, dialup, massive BBS basically. Messaging, shopping, airline reservations and other connections. I wish someone could rescue the whole thing from tape and host it.
- fsckboy 4y ago
  I wish someone could rescue the whole thing from tape and host it... on a PDP-10
guessbest 4y ago
It wasn't really a walled garden, though. I remember using the AOL client software to connect to the internet and then opening IE to browse internet sites like yahoo, geocities and slashdot. When the computer owner who let me borrow his computer saw me do this he was stunned. He didn't realize he was connected to the internet this whole time.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- zemo 4y ago
  right but that wasn't what AOL was trying to build; it's what happened in spite of their efforts, not because of them. Notice the prominent "channels" and "what's hot" buttons in the second screen shot? They're given a higher position in the ui hierarchy than "internet" for a reason. They were trying to create an experience where all of the content came from AOL itself. "Channels" were their content pipelines, they were hypermedia but everything within the content network of channels was created by AOL itself. It would be like someone hearing about the web and thinking that the way to "win" the web would be to "own all of the web pages".
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  > It wasn't really a walled garden, though It effectively was for millions of users who did not venture outside the AOL client.
  - hydr0 4y ago
    fwiw...AOL also introduced a web browser within their client and provided its users with 2mb of web hosting space. I hosted a bunch of my first web sites using it and learned about FTP.
    - TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
      That’s a great story to hear and lessons my negative views of AOL. Thanks for sharing it!
- tablespoon 4y ago
  > It wasn't really a walled garden, though. I remember using the AOL client software to connect to the internet and then opening IE to browse internet sites like yahoo, geocities and slashdot. That wasn't always true. At some point internet access was a "feature" that was added to the walled-garden AOL. They famously added Usenet in September 1993. I can't find a date for web access, but I'd guess 1995.