AOL Finally Realized AIM Is A Social Network… Two Years Too Late
from the a-bit-slow-on-the-uptake-there dept
Some blogs started spreading a rumor this week that AOL was working on its own “MySpace-killer,” which honestly isn’t that surprising. Given the attention that MySpace has been getting, just about every big online company seems to be working out ideas for building “their” MySpace. However, with all the buzz, AOL’s own Ted Leonsis decided to head on over to his own blog to clarify. In it, he makes the big revelation that AOL has finally realized that their instant messaging platform AIM really is a social network, and rather than build a MySpace killer, they’re simply looking to add social networking features to AIM. Of course, plenty of people asked why they weren’t doing this two years ago, when it actually might have made a difference.
Comments on “AOL Finally Realized AIM Is A Social Network… Two Years Too Late”
Heh
No shock there, took them seven years to realize that dial-up wasn’t the wave of the future….
Re: Heh
While dial-up isn’t the wave of the future, it is the only option in many places (esp. in places where the other option is satellite internet which is presently at least 3x more expensive and AO-hell’s rising monthly fee).
Where, you ask? America’s heartland for one. The breadbasket appears to not be wired as of yet. Even hotels out there have really horrible “high speed” internet (which I keep finding out is largely a la satellite).
Re: Re: Heh
“Not wired????” And I suppose we drive horses to work, too? I don’t know where you get your information, but I have lived in Kansas and Nebraska all my life, and we have the same internet access available as anyone else in the country. The only thing I haven’t seen here yet is FiOS, which is just barely available anywhere yet. Sure, the rural farmers don’t have broadband in some areas, but that’s true of rural areas everywhere. Then again, my dad lives 15 miles outside of city limits on a farm, and he gets 3MBit DSL. So, seriously, before you go spreading mor erumors about the “primitive” heartland, do your research.
myspace for adults?
I wonder if this will turn into myspace for adults?
Re: myspace for adults?
I can not conceive of anything AOL offers being for adults.
Saturated?
How many “myspaces” can there be before the market is saturated? Or do you think that enough improvements can be continually made to get people to switch from their long time “homes”?
And what is the solution for those too far from towns for highspeed?
Re: Saturated?
I think there is still room.
Myspace is far from perfect.. and they are slow to improve or add the features people want.
oh boy
Yeah the market gonna over flow with all these wana be myspaces and the like. Life would be so much easier, if they could make this hudge partner ship put ideas and resources together to make a “super myspace.” That way you wouldn’t have to have 10 accounts on 10 different my space type websites to find friends and signifigant others.
heck, when I want friends and significant others, I head on down to the local tavern. Now, if they could figure out how to put that online…… THAT’s the wave of the future.
AOL
I don’t understand why people pay these companys for internet access, I thought it was free with your Broadband or Dial-up connection. I know mine is.
Re: AOL
That has to be the most AOL comment ever.
Re: AOL
A classic example of an AOhell user! LOL
AOL should learn from Enron….the CEO’s would make more money that way and the world would be a better place after. No more lieing, poor decision making on what people ‘want’, and definately no more ignorant PC users that are baby fed crap online. When I dropped AOL for RoadRunner 6 years ago, it was like being unplugged from the Matrix. Why cant people understand that there is so much more than a restricted internet?
AOL and Roadrunner are both owned by Time Warner. So from switch from one to another you really weren’t “unplugging from the matrix”, you were just connecting to a faster version of “the matrix”
unplugged from the matrix of AOL software/spyware though, for sure
why don’t we focus on getting RID of myspace and idiots that don’t belong on the internet, but instead somewhere in a bard looking to get laid?
Sorry, I’m old fashioned when it comes to the internet. its a place to discuss and share things that matter — not your teenage love life.
cesspool.
Re: Re:
bard == bar;
Re: Re:
Haha, sorry buddy. I’m a teen and that’s definitely one of the things i don’t talk about online.
Cheers.
Re: lets get RID of myspace
Every time i land on a myspace page i am assaulted with an indecipherable visual cacophony. It is like I am viewing some alien species’ communication medium. Very disconcerting.
Re: Re: lets get RID of myspace
“Every time i land on a myspace page i am assaulted with an indecipherable visual cacophony. It is like I am viewing some alien species’ communication medium. Very disconcerting.”
Aye, you do have a good point with the overzealousness of the average profile when it comes to picture, music and other junk, but completely getting rid of the system I think would be not in the best interests of the people who pay 3/4 of a million dollars for home page ads a day.
The internet has changed...it's just visible now
Zeroth, when I was a teenager and on the net I did the same thing except I did it on a Geocities page (right before Yahoo bought it).
The discussion and things that matter are the teenage love lives to the teenagers. Sorry, but what matters to you doesn’t matter to everyone.
That’s the beautiful part of the internet: I don’t have to hear or see your conversation about worthless BS because I don’t have to visit your webpage.
Re: The internet hasn't changed...it's just visibl
Blasted typos. My subject should read: The Internet hasn’t changed…it’s just visible.
Myspace: Here's the catch
The crap hole that Myspace is, you have to remember…the 16 year olds flocking to it are going to be in YOUR shoes in ten, twenty years.
That’s what myspace is banking on, (literally), and because of that they will listen to teenagers wants and needs above yours. Those teenagers with the silly bulletins and pictures are future IT support, game developers, software developers, bankers, lawyers and CEOs.
Myspace is making smart decisions for the future success of it’s own company, and you HAVE to respect that.
psst... got a revelation
watch out here~ we got a genius amongst us, but wait here’s one for you…. are you listening?…
…the internet is a social network. BAM! How you like that for a revelation?
Re: psst... got a revelation
And here I’ve been thinking it was just a convenient method to time share my unused processor time.
They're a mess...
AOL is too concerned with adding “features” to AIM that increase the delivery of advertising, and ways of somehow turning a free service into a way for them to make money.
What they don’t realize (and never will) is that this only serves to drive users further away, instead of actually attracting new ones.
A lot of companies are doign this now, but for a company that is desperately grasping for market share, you think they’d be a little more careful with the one remaining thing they DO have.
As usual, they’ve gone and F’ed it all up.
Good riddance, hopefully they’ll just go bankrupt already, and do everyone a favor.
Re: They're a mess...
Throwing around comments about a business doing things wrong and f’ing things all up, and hoping they “just go bankrupt already,” is pretty lame. All these large companies that you all hate, are obviously not going to go bankrupt, and apparently, they are doing something right, as they are still in business.
Companies like AOL or MS or any other leading company could easily ignore the “social network” buzz a la myspace, and they would be just fine.
Stop hating and sounding like an ignorant individual, and just accept that there is nothing you can do, or will upon these companies to make them disappear.
Most of the people on myspace can’t get into a bar is why