It’s 2008. Time For Mac Users To Just Say No To AOL.

Thursday, May 8, 2008 | Commentary | Read or Post a Comment

AOL I’m baaaaack. Welcome to the 21st century. Unless you’re a Mac user on AOL. Their numbers are dwindling. That’s as it should be.

In that case, you’re still stuck back in the last century using a desktop metaphor that was old a decade ago, ground up, mashed, regurgitated, and still ugly as Tommy Lee Jones’ twin brother.

I don’t know what to say about AOL. I had one of the first AOL accounts back when modems were slower than sneaker net or Jessica Simpson. If.... (excerpted).

7 Reader Comments

Lee Givens said:

Hello Bambi (and fellow Mac users), I appreciate the time you spent taking a look at AOL Desktop for Mac. I’m the product manager for AOL’s Mac products and we’re looking forward to 2008 and beyond by building some great Mac apps. The all-in-one Internet app is makes it easy for the millions who couldn’t recall the IMAP or SMPT port number to get mail working. We also support a whole bunch of AOL host-based services that add value above using Safari/iChat/Mail.app.

You get unlimited mail storage, host-based synching of Favorites and Address Book and single sign-on for all your AOL channels. We also support IM features not available in iChat and you can still manage multiple screen names and switch in seconds.

On the mobile side, AOL is making a large investment on the mobile Mac OS X platform…you’ll see a number of AOL apps make their way to the iPhone/iPod Touch. (See the iPhone SDK announcement and demo of the AIM for iPhone prototype: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/iphoneroadmap/ ).

I invite you and your readers to the Mac@AOL Blog (http://macblog.aol.com) and we’ll be posting updates and information on the new Mac and iPhone apps. We’ve also been creating iPhone-friendly versions of popular AOL properties - AOL.com, Moviephone.com, AOL Search (http://search.aol.com) and new web apps coming online every week!

thanks!
Lee Givens
AOL Mac Product Lead
http://macblog.aol.com

GuyGene said:

Maybe some people do need what AOL offers. Art, you really put it into perspective I think - LOL at your smoke signals comment…

AOL was my first email account, way back in 1991 when I was the only human I knew who had email! “So”, I thought, “this email thing might have potential, but for now, I still have to use a fax…” So, after about a year, I cancelled my AOL account. Then, every once in a while, I would renew it for the free 30 days just so I could use email from a modem, this was about the mid ‘90s. Hmmm, wonder if my old user name is still valid?

Art said:

I’m glad AOL is still around for 2 reasons. 1) If you ever have an old client or friend who is terrified of computers, for some reason, they instantly ‘get’ the AOL paradigm. I’ve seen people who sweat merely opening Mail or Safari squeal with glee upon using AOL. Although, I’m talking the old version. The new Desktop version might not be as successful.

And 2) AOL offers unlimited free space for email accounts. When everything else has failed, AOL, as a last resort, is usually there to get whatever you need sent sent. I"m not sure how they’ve achieved this reliability. Perhaps through unimaginable redundancy at the server farm. But when .mac is down, GoDaddy is acting weird, and smoke signals fail, that’s when AOL shines.

That said, I cannot stand using their tools. I started out with AOL long ago, but quickly saw the appeal and superiority of using a standalone browser and mail client.

Oddly enough, AOL does have great content for news and finance, all grouped nicely together.

Flat Bush Billy said:

Don’t be so hard on those poor old AOL folks. They’re the ones responsible for electing our current President.

It is funny that all AOL’s desktop for Mac users does is give them browser access, email, and chat. Every new Mac comes with the same things.

Way to go, AOL. Show us how you can innovate your way out of obscurity.

don juan said:

I had to laugh at this, Ms Bambi. Truly, AOL went to a lot of trouble to build a browser to their portal of content, re-create an email client for Mac users, and incorporate yet another version of AOL AIM into the Mac, all so they can say, “Here AOL user, behold. Browser and email and chat. And it’s easy to use.”

Maybe they don’t know that all that already comes with OS X. AOL users are not the swiftest bits on the phone line.

Guy said:

About half-way through your article you hit the nail on the head. There ARE a lot of people who really don’t know their way around computers and don’t mind a little hand-holding. Doesn’t make them, doesn’t make AOL’s desktop software unneeded. It isn’t something I’d use, but it does fill a need.

zerocool said:

WELCOME BACK Bambi ! we missed you ... A lot

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