What Happened to America Online? [LGR Tech Tales]

[@LGR]

If you'd like even more AOL history, be sure to check out my Quantum Link episode: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rmjNfXWFfturnsk

[@FerintoshFarmsPhotography]

This was really way more interesting than I thought it would be; I was poor and never had a computer growing up, so was interesting to see what was what about all those ads I seen growing up.

[@robertsmith1434]

You did a great job with this episode. Seriously good information (brought back a bunch of old memories actually) arranged in a well thought out and insightful manner. 2 thumbs up!!

[@owlredshift]

I could have watched a feature film length video of this. You really are gifted in the ways of content creation, Clint. Thanks so much for what you do, I look forward to every upload you do, which is saying a lot for my channels these days! o7

[@sweeshaman]

Chex Quest with that free hours of AOL best products ever LOL

[@axelord1942]

How about a video on Prodigy? lol

[@AKShamu28]

Relatively recently, I was playing Overwatch and I ran into Elwood Edwards. I complimented him on his voice, saying that he should be a voice actor, on a podcast, or something, and he was just like, "Yeah, thanks I get that alot! I actually used to be the voice of America Online." we had a relatively short discussion for a few minutes and it kinda just blew my mind that I randomly bumped into a legend through Overwatch of all things. Small world we live in, I suppose.

[@k-leb4671]

It's super cool that he was playing Overwatch.

[@BossBen1]

Did you ever catch his username by any chance?

[@spingleboygle]

that’s awesome!

[@TheOriginalSide1]

​@topnightsofficialI ran into Donald Trump before he became president on the wiggles dark ride selling chess boards

[@bruhuk_obama]

@@TheOriginalSide1I saw Abraham Lincoln playing Team Fortress 2

[@The8BitGuy]

The nice thing about the floppy disks is that I could re-use them by re-formatting them and peeling off the label. The CDs were totally worthless. Also don't forget how they use to scam people. Their software was like a virus. Sometimes it was impossible to remove from a system once installed. Also they would continue to charge people even after they cancelled their service and getting your money back from them was impossible.

[@TruthofRealities]

D

[@theletters9623]

I swear half the "coasters" in my parents home are just old aol mail cds thats all you could do with them

[@gurillamann6534]

Hi 8-bit guy

[@AndyKPOV]

I was the kid stealing em from the theaters. 🤣 I also used to reformat to copy games. And had the same struggles I'd be riding my bike and jump off a curb and the second I'd hit the ground was the moment I knew I corrupted half the game. Them aol floppies we're always nice to have but not durable at all

[@johnconnorstopskynet]

Well then its a good thing I raised so much hell with them back in the 90s haha with the progz My parents didn't appreciate the TOS violation phone calls.

[@sparkly9294]

"Get off the Internet I need to make a phone call!"

[@TheShadowsega75ZX]

MisterSparkly My mom and Dad always tell me that everytime I visited IGN until I finally got broadband because they kept missing calls.

[@lordlarssen]

HAHA hihi... Lol... Oh I remember !!

[@firstlast-cs6eg]

Broadband is SOO much much more attractive, being able to be online and use the phone is just one.There is also having a modem that doesn't loudly screech at you every time you logged in (why was that a thing? They couldn't simply mute it?) and the fact that even the slowest broadband was massively faster and faster in a way we needed. (as compared to the 40mb -100mb+ service we can get now that is really a bit faster then the average user needs)

[@NickanM]

Oh yes, Or: I've been trying to call you for 3 hours, the line was busy all the time!!!!

[@MrAdamJoel]

Or.... I remember having a setup where “call waiting” sensed a 2nd call and getting bounced off. “Goodbye!”

[@TayDays1128]

The AOL Time Warner merger destroyed so many things. Impacted the internet, tv, and music industries. It was a defining event for media that isnt talked about enough.

[@ParadoxdesignsOrg]

I'm typing this on a Pentium 90, in a Cabin in the woods. using Windows 95, Dialup and Bonzi Buddy.

[@chriswininger3022]

You are either really awesome or really scary LOL. Stay sane out there in the woods and remember don't copy that floppy.

[@doomslayer163]

Sweat set up.. I'm jealous..

[@Dannmcg]

Do Not Read from that book!

[@jamesslick4790]

A P90 with Win95?!? Too modern and full of bloat, I'm using an IBM PS/2 Model 70 with a 16Mhz i386DX and MS-DOS 6.22 / WFW 3.11

[@dylanchen]

I'm typing this on a 3990x,in my personal gaming room(even though 3990x is bad for it), using windows 10, 1Gbps Fiber Connection and Firefox.

[@thetaleteller4692]

This AOL-Kids screen must have been the key inspiration to the designers of Windows 8+ GUI.

[@LGR]

It was a common joke in 2012 ;) twitter.com/notcom/status/197476978931150848

[@KuraIthys]

Lol. Wow. I always thought it was a less well thought out version of the LCARS interface from Star Trek. It bears some resemblance... But not in a good way...

[@d0x360]

nothing is less well thought out than LCARS...nothing. It makes zero sense and depending on who uses it the same button always does totally different things. Plus even Windows has a login screen to prevent any old buffon from randomly touching a button that shoots torpedoes or ejects the warp core

[@RemixedVoice]

The Amazing Arcanine! Windows Vista = Shitty beta version of Windows 7 Windows 8 = shitty beta version of Windows 10

[@knotthensa159]

Windows 8 = shitty beta version of Windows 9. Windows 9 was so terrible they went back to Windows 8 and started from scratch. now, Windows 8 = shitty beta version of Windows 10.

[@eIucidate]

I can't help but feel that the rebranding to "America Online" played a major role in its warm reception by the public. It was very clever.

[@ScreamingAllTheTime]

Back in December 2009 my second grade teacher gave us a super cool craft of turning disks into tree ornaments using our school photo, glitter glue, and wrapping paper. A couple years ago the wrapping paper stated to peel, revealing it was an AOL disk. Got ahold of some old classmates and discovered that they too, had AOL disk-turned ornaments. I’m not sure if our entire class had them, but certainly a lot of us did.

[@hrvstmusic]

Families tend to keep Christmas ornaments forever. We got most of my wife’s grandma’s ornaments when she passed.

[@ScreamingAllTheTime]

@@hrvstmusicI mean I moreso wonder if every disk used in this project was an old AOL disk or other junk software disks my poor teacher had cluttering up her desk.

[@bemannen]

WWF wrestler Brett Hart dressed as Billy Ray Cyrus holding a floppy disc for an America Online ad is one of the most 90's pictures ever.

[@rodjerdankist1125]

@@makeitthrough_ most likely.

[@Crenga]

pro wrestlers always seem to sum up the eras, don't they? wild stuff

[@crumplezone1]

I`m still downloading a movie from 1997 on AOL

[@videotoblin]

I was downloading something from QLink when it died.

[@videotoblin]

dude bummer, aol discontinued dial up. you have about half of the movie right now, right???

[@alyx8815]

I thought it said lol for a minute AOL

[@handyboy4178]

Is it at 50% yet?

[@KC9MDO]

I still have dvds to mail back to blockbuster

[@quasicroissant]

Tech tales is probably my favorite series on this channel!

[@refreshfr]

EVERYTHING !

[@Ponyfox]

It's definitely the highlight as it also highlights LGR's ability to present and tell stories so clearly. Not a single second of boredom and the just the perfect voice! :D

[@AliceDarling1212]

FinRanomness Tech Tales is one of the best things online.

[@adrianlauer]

FinRanomness mine too

[@jamesthomson7634]

Its one of the best things on youtube.

[@Adridle]

I remember stacking up "One month free" CD's as a teenager to have free internet forever. Didn't use more than 4 months tho.

[@louistournas120]

I used it for a couple of years, in Canada.

[@moniboo523]

Me too got them at Walmart😂😂🥴

[@TheScottbb1]

I remember my tech uncle somehow giving me regular dial-up server access for free (not legal). He also introduced me to Napster and then torrents of course lol. Legend

[@JohnRiggs]

I remember going from $5/hr. to unlimited. That's like going from h'orderves to an all-you-can-eat buffet.

[@LGR]

Amen. It was a grand time.

[@TheBrokenLife]

The switch from a 28.8 modem to a cable modem, when no one on the network ring had one and the internet was still relatively lightly taxed traffic wise, was even better. I still can't download an MP3 today as fast as I could in 1998.

[@Blackadder75]

I had 10Mbit in my student dorm in jan '96 It would take at least 8 years before I got to that again in the 'normal' world.

[@TheBrokenLife]

I have 25 mbit service now and even an MP3 download off of Amazon is slower than Napster was back in the day (well... sometimes).

[@MrStabby19812]

Blackadder75 had the opposite problem had 512k broadband cable at home and dial up at college wanted to bang my head on the desk when I had to use college computers

[@judevecoli865]

My memories of AOL are near and dear to my heart. Especially the chat room connection that lead to my meeting the man I would eventually marry. Sadly, we have since divorced. But I will always credit AOL for that random connection that became some of the happiest years of my life.

[@ThisBeMayheM]

That's how my parents met too

[@stephensalex]

@@ThisBeMayheM That's how I met my wife. We're still together :)

[@blastofo]

I was always in punk chat. a/s/l??

[@exquisitecorpse4917]

Bill Von Meister deserves his own episode!! He did SO MANY revolutionary things in terms of early internet innovations, and his name is barely known outside of computer science circles.

[@theSato]

As a kid, I snatched up about 100 of those free AOL CDs from somewhere, and stuck them all to the ceiling in my room - it looked pretty cool xD

[@mkultrasoldier]

Sato Dude you would get SO MANY FREE HOURS xD

[@praveensharma9893]

+Niall Asher a fuckin 100,000 hours if AOL 4.0. :O that's like 400 days!

[@azazellee]

As soon as I got one in the mail, I would put it in the microwave to watch the fireworks. Probably why I got cancer.

[@zanite8650]

True 90s kid.

[@krisbright3227]

I remember a bunch of kids in my neighborhood did the same thing.

[@2Cerealbox]

It's hard to overemphasize how brilliant the floppy disk campaign was. People didn't know much about computers yet, and AOL became *ubiquitous*. No one would go out of their way to look for another service and software when you were guaranteed to have a copy of AOL. For a while, many people didn't know the difference between AOL and the internet.

[@TheLionAndTheLamb777]

I had a neighbor that paid for AOL dial up while she used Comcast Cable to connect. I tried to tell her that she didn't need to use AOL, but she said that she only knew how to use the AOL browswer.

[@austinjackson7103]

We used Compuserve

[@-._.-KRiS-._.-]

Some people still don't. I have a coworker that goes to AOL.com so he can use their search bar to look for things on the internet.

[@ChaimS]

The idea of "The Internet" is a network of networks (another term that's gone the way of, well, AOL). It's the idea that an internet connection can bring you to any other network connected to the internet. AOL was, as the video says, a "walled garden" meaning that you could only access AOL content from AOL, no one else's, and no one else could access AOL content if they didn't subscribe to AOL. That's not the internet, that's, as you said, "their online thing." Make sense?

[@RayRift]

And now everyone thinks "The Internet" is the damn Facebook app on their smart phone.

[@eliblessed]

Mentioning 'cyber-sex' and 'forwards from grandma' next to each other gave me a pretty good laugh...

[@maximal9857]

what?

[@alexandervotyakov]

@@maximal9857 20:23

[@zrobeast]

To be fair, both are nice things that we wouldn’t have had if AOL didn’t blow up like it did.

[@cloudkitt]

That whole cost-per-minute setup was wild. Logging on to save a walkthrough off gamefaqs as quickly as possible and signing off next to your parent looking at their watch, or waiting to use the phone.

[@GregoryShtevensh]

As an Australian I find it interesting that having to lease out infrastructure such as DSL lines and exchanges, lead to a downfall for them, due to price undercutting. Here in Australia we have a similar situation with our ADSL providers. Something that the National Broadband Network has began to phase out. But basically, Testra owned all the DSL infrastructure here, and would lease it to other retailers. But they're strategy was to be more expensive than all other providers, while offering 2nd to none technical support due to putting their own customers as a top priority when it came to signal repairs. Other ISPs would literally tell you "it takes longer for us to do repairs for our customers, because Telstra prioritises their customers 1st"

[@LandNfan]

I was a beta-tester for America Online before it had that name. There was a blind ad in one of the computer magazines for people willing to test a new (unnamed) online service. I ran my own BBS at that time, as well as being a frequent user of both CompuServe and GEIS, so I answered the ad. A few weeks later, a disk arrived in the mail that contained the product which was released a few months later as America Online. I wasn't terribly impressed. It was slow with too much overhead to provide the clunky pseudo graphic interface. I was a DOS command line cowboy and had little patience for the mass-market sugar coating.

[@videotoblin]

Huh. Nice story! I didnt know that AOL had an ad in the magazines, never saw it. Quantum Link and AOL were more my cuppa, never beta tested anything myself.

[@bxdanny]

They ran those ads for several months, as I remember it. I think they wanted to make people feel like they were special because they got that "advance peek" at the "new" service.

[@chucknorris9856]

@@bxdanny reminds me of all the people that "won" free cell phones, resulting in a monthly bill of course.

[@castirondude]

Ha! I used to run a BBS also. Back in the day where FrontDoor vs InterMail was the talk of the day :) Compuserve was quite slow and required special software, I think AOL did as well. I quickly moved to an independent provider.

[@LandNfan]

castirondude my BBS software was Wildcat running on an old XT clone. In our last year of operation the board was part of RelayNet.

[@warmowed]

"cybersex, forwards from grandma, free frisbees and drink coasters" 10/10

[@KombatGod]

I say it all the time, but seriously: I HATE all these KZbinrs acting all smart an pretending to tell us the history of stuff just because they read the first thing that pops up when you do a Google search on the topic, rather than doing actual research and giving an insightful view on it.... Thank God we have LGR instead!!! Great work as always dude, keep it up!!

[@vvvaire]

KrossoverGod Before i clicked read more I was about to smash a glass vase

[@hulaganz]

IKR

[@randomizer1666]

Ahh AOL, my favorite frisbee manufacturer of the early 00s...

[@CM-wv8ns]

We pretended we were in 'Tron Deadly Disks'

[@mikhaelis]

God I miss the golden age of AOL. Back then, I couldn't imagine AOL ever becoming obsolete.

[@UNSCPILOT]

It's going to be interesting to see Facebook and the like ending up the same way

[@madprophetus]

I miss logging on at night and seeing an array of buddies that I had built up over the months in the Boston chat rooms. Discord just isn't the same.

[@itsCatMeme37]

​@@madprophetus Discord has all the features and tons more that the old AOL had. The difference is that back then, AOL was so new, and all the features were just being introduced to the world. Now it is so easy to connect, add contacts, chat with people, etc. that the effect it had on you the very first time ever doing so was greatly increased doing it with AOL. You were making history back then.

[@crypticcrustacean4499]

@@itsCatMeme37 Discord sucks ass.

[@lmttn]

Please, pretty please say you mean it when you say MSN is a tale for another day. The controversy surrounding Internet Explorer and MSN is fascinating.

[@LGR]

I mean it!

[@Krytern]

I would be very interested in seeing MSN's tale.

[@richardgates7479]

How about just a list of all the companies MS put out of business. I know that's a lot of work, so I'll understand if you pass on it.

[@MrGrandBarbu]

My dad still read the news on msn(dot)com, i facepalm each time... XD

[@MediaMunkee]

I'm extremely curious how the mutation of MSN Messenger to Windows Live Messenger to a Skype merger is involved in all of that.

[@metfan4l]

I really like these kind of videos, very interesting and informative.

[@Simarchy]

I still can't believe it's been 20 years. I mean the math adds up, I was 13 when I first got AOL and I'm 33 now. But still, just saying "20 years ago" sounds so bizarre!!

[@LGR]

Tell me about it, argh!

[@CaptTerrific]

DUDE, I know! I'm 31 right now, and this literally made me tear up in the end - the Internet grew up with us, and a look back at its childhood is a look back at ours :) A poet could put it better I'm sure, but I hope I'm getting the idea across!

[@Simarchy]

No that totally made sense! I actually still have friends to this day I met on AOL, before we knew what each other looked like or where they lived or anything about them really. It was all so fun and mysterious back then! Actually kind of scary to think about now that I mention it haha.

[@brandonevans9342]

Simarchy perception of time has changed since the internet. it's effected everyone.

[@Simarchy]

Very true Brandon!

[@juliusnolastname4605]

My family still used AOL until around 2006. I'm 16 and the dial up sound as well as "I need the phone" are part of my earliest memories

[@BloominFleury29]

I got very confused and then seen four years ago haha

[@kilroywashere9343]

My grandparents still use AOL, I remember when I was like 8, going to there house almost every day during the summer and asking my grandfather to let me use the computer, I most have played on there computer for hours, also that you’ve got mail thing is thoroughly engraved in my mind

[@Dimondminer11]

My mom still used Aol as a search engine and website up until about 3 years ago where she had to make the transition to google for her school stuff to work properly. Because she got into the rental home business when she was getting out of high school she couldn't do college. Crazy that she used that IN COMBINATION WITH INTERNET EXPLORER.

[@torterra1826]

Grammar

[@BleachDemon707]

@@torterra1826 ugh🙄right?

[@kingcoveryepic]

@@torterra1826 ugh😌left!

[@Pickelhaube808]

@@torterra1826 ugh😩center‽

[@g2macs]

I remember that AOL was like a virus. Once in your computer (usually piggybacked on some bloatware) it was a bugger to get out.

[@FerretsForever94]

yeah, I remember that too.

[@NfamousKayeGames]

Yeah. Don’t download anything with that disk in 😂

[@itsgruz]

What a fantastic video, had no idea there was so much history to AOL and didn't know they were still around. I love your Tech Tales series, they're all so captivating!

[@LGR]

Thanks, man!

[@Porygonal64]

oh man, it's Killgruz!

[@Reacted1991]

Theres alot of history to anything if you look for it

[@Decadent36]

LGR, outstanding job. It still amazes me that anyone with a little know how and skill can use this platform to make something as professional and polished as this was and we are no longer forced to watch inferior content pushed out from the big networks. Thank goodness those days are gone and we have so many options now! Keep up the great work with all of your endeavors.

[@LGR]

Thanks, glad you're enjoying!

[@TheChipmunk2008]

"apple turned out to be hard to get along with".... some things never change

[@caturdaynite7217]

I was like "you don't say.."

[@abe9560]

company DNA

[@Tahngarthor]

I always loved those free frisbees and drink coasters. I had no idea there was actually data on them.

[@dingdongbells3314]

Outstanding work as always, very thoroughly researched. I knew someone who worked at a CD manufacturing/printing plant in the early 2000s, and those AOL trial disks accounted for most of the company's production until they went out of business due to some bone-headed management decisions (Even waiting a few more months to upgrade to support DVD production because they had insider information about an upcoming cost reduction in the technology, while one of their competitors took the gamble early and managed to land big contracts as a result!) Anyways, AOL was always a big hero because they stuck with them until the final moments of the burning, sinking, shipwreck that was his company.... only to then have a copy from their final batch of AOL sample discs showing-up in his mailbox, next to the unemployment check a month later.

[@MichaelShulski]

"What happened to America Online"? My guess: they're still billing me somewhere.

[@Nesseight]

Tell them you wish to cancel. They'll force free time upon you.

[@scvic2006]

Today is May 3,2020. My dad still uses the AOL desktop application for his email and net browsing, regardless of how many times I have showed him how to exist online without that POS application.

[@morganthomas5934]

@@scvic2006 my grandad was the same. Got AOL early on and never left, even when I installed Firefox for him. He was convinced til he died last year that you had to open AOL to be able to use the computer.

[@TheDigitalThreat]

lol my mom still uses her AOL email. Not even sure how she kept it, as at some point I was locked out of mine by them and they were tied to the same account.

[@morganthomas5934]

@@TheDigitalThreat just goes to show how stubborn people can be about not wanting to change something. Like yeah if it’s not broke don’t fix it, but why would you not want something better and faster and cheaper? At least there’s always memories

[@Diskoboy1974]

I remember the day AOL 4.0 came out. We couldn't wait to download it, and when we finally did, we tinkered with it for an hour or two and hated it. We deleted it and re-installed AOL 3. A few months later, we got our first cable modem and never looked back.

[@starkmouth]

This wasn't about a game, nor was it lazy, wtf is your channel even? subbed.

[@PhoenixNL72-DEGA-]

Kinda wonder if the name Lazy Game reviews just mean he's only lazy about games and makes very little videos on those XD

[@danielzelpher7335]

rAnDOm cAPS AOL WAS a game. seriously, punting people out of chatrooms and such was kinda fun

[@Wahinies]

AoHeLL ftw

[@P0V3RTY09]

Surprised that ya didn't explore AOL's borderline criminal way they made it almost virtually impossible to unsubscribe to their service. In one case that was made public, a customer service representative degraded an unhappy customer that wanted to end his subscription... telling that if he ( the subscriber ) wouldn't let him finish his retainment rhetoric , he would hang up leaving him subscribed for an addition pay period. Insane business practices like this was the sign of an early demise in my view.

[@freespuddy]

That's what I was thinking, and wondered why this wasn't mentioned in the video.

[@creakycracker]

When I finally got broadband I had to send a letter somewhere in Florida to unsubscribe....and it took about 2 months for the charges to stop.

[@TheBlindingwhite]

I j2ad a similar problem. I unsubscribed but someone in the house didn't know and teied.tonlog on. Apparently this was deemed as an automatic renewal from the AOhelL viewpoint and billing restarted. Since I was working on the road I didnt know for 2 months. After back and forth the charges went to collections for over $100. Needless to say it was never paid. I never looked back. Although their cds made great material for art projects and shooting targets for years after.

[@rodofiron100]

They cancelled my service, without telling me why, and kept charging me anyway.

[@tonyhakston536]

THEY BURNED OUR CROPS, POISONED OUR WATER SUPPLY, AND DELIVERED A PLAGUE UNTO OUR HOUSES!

[@SuperNerdyBoy]

you should make a DVD set of these I would but it

[@xbell1232]

Brad Wright ikr

[@ToiletBrew-IPA]

It's just a 10-disc set of AOL discs

[@vgamesx1]

I would but it too, however that's probably too much work for most youtubers, although you can always just download the videos yourself, burn them to a DVD and then give him $10 on patreon

[@CattoRayTube]

...and send it to thousands of people for free to get the word out there hah

[@CaptTerrific]

There has to be a print-on-demand company somewhere online for DVDs, similar to photos or books!

[@FedoraMark]

These are like E! True Hollywood Story episodes for tech companies. Love 'em!

[@LGR]

Hehe, not a bad comparison.

[@idonottrustyou3454]

Merging Aol. and Yahoo! ? What would it be called? Yaahoool.! ? Sounds great if you ask me.

[@brittneythomas204]

it feels like yesterday when I would get up at 5:00AM to 3:00PM on weekends to watch KZbin videos more then 5mins long on AOL and waiting 3-6 hours to load ( if there were disconnections, only one video per day). I don't miss it one bit.

[@RandomAssaultPodcast]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who got cyber sex forwards from my grandma

[@LGR]

_Nice._

[@RandomAssaultPodcast]

of course, don't wanna be rude to gam-gam

[@RandomAssaultPodcast]

***** that's awesome lol

[@millenniumf1138]

+1 for making me laugh hard enough to collapse on my bed!

[@DarthTella]

Ah, the days where you couldn't use your phone because someone was on the Internet. Good times.

[@CaptTerrific]

My folks dropped AOL back in 2000 when we got cable Internet, but kept the second landline we'd had installed to this day :)

[@TheBanMan]

Niki Groeger I can just picture some TV sitcom writers: Writer 1: OK, then we'll have a scene where Judy wants to call her boyfriend, but, uh oh! Billy is busy messaging his friend on the interwebs! Writer 2: Brilliant! I can't imagine any of this aging whatsoever!

[@TheBanMan]

Niki Groeger I can just picture some TV sitcom writers: Writer 1: OK, then we'll have a scene where Judy wants to call her boyfriend, but, uh oh! Billy is busy messaging his friend on the interwebs! Writer 2: Brilliant! I can't imagine any of this aging whatsoever!

[@Ltulrich]

Remember when someone picking up a phone somewhere in the house broke your dial-up connection? It was always busy when you tried to reconnect.

[@jonowee]

Having to even use the home phone whether or not there was dial-up instead of your own mobile now.

[@ghallora]

These are really well made. I have been following you for years and you deserve your increasing sub base. Keep up the good work. From Sydney Australia.

[@LGR]

Thanks!

[@Mr_Zehn]

The "You've Got Mail" sound is my notification sound.

[@Lemonix1]

IM NOT ALONE

[@3636eli]

Same

[@DackWallace]

AOL punters and "proggies" are what got me into Windows programming and Visual Basic back when I was a kid. I used to study the BAS files that punter makers would release and make my own. That was the moat fun time in internet history. It was so fun to boot your friends off after they'd get home from school and spend 30 minutes trying to get online with busy servers and congested busy hours.

[@Quadrenaro]

I totally forgot that hooking up to the internet was a noisy process.

[@louistournas120]

+Quadrenaro: If you are using Win 95 or Win 98, just go into the modem's properties and pulll the sound slider to he extreme left. Problem solved forever. I guess average joe had not figured that out.

[@oneminutefixed5003]

How on earth did you forget that? Most of us have that demonic sound imprinted in our brains

[@jamesslick4790]

I miss that, It added to the excitement of going on-line. I'm old, so most of my computer experience had been off line, So connecting to a BBS or an Online service was "Cool" and "Exotic" in the day, the "techy" sounds added to it!

[@jamesslick4790]

@Jason Bratcher It was a software setting.Or if it was an external modem, one COULD de-solder the speaker,but WHY?!? The sound was assuring!

[@TheSefirosu200x]

You mean you _don't_ have the sound permanently burned into your brain? Weird.

[@TheMrCrown]

The coolest thing back then, for me, was faking an AOL account for almost a year. I felt like such a badass hacker.. =)

[@Krytern]

What do you mean by "faking an account"?

[@Blackadder75]

dial in without paying the aol charge

[@TheMrCrown]

Faking was creating real accounts with fake data and fake creditcard numbers (douchebags took real CCs). Took Aol just a year to figure that out in my case. ^^

[@NarwahlGaming]

Did you hack the Gibson?!

[@krisbright3227]

I did that too! lol I remember getting AOL Email and AIM without having to pay for it before they made them readily available for free. I was so proud of myself. lol

[@sirterrell04]

“Apple was overcharging for it” They do that a lot these days

[@0flyswatter0]

Apple's business model has overcharging as the mortar of the foundation.

[@SupremeNerd]

been doing hat since the Apple 2

[@MrSafer]

Apple: Cutting edge tech 5 years ago.

[@natejennings5884]

A high priced closed ecosystem. I never cared much for Apple.

[@eupher2]

Do the math, compare the same hardware from the Mac Pro to a Windows PC. Plus add the cost of Windows, and whatever other software you need. What's cheaper then? Plus the Mac Pro I bought in 2008, is still my primary computer today, it works perfectly fine. They may cost some money up front but save money in the long run.

[@ApocalypseMoose]

>"AOL is a waste of time. Don't bother." >Invents Internet Explorer and MSN lol

[@themoondoggie1]

Great story coverage, nice job. In 1990 after fiddling with a Commodore VIC 20, I had 3, a Commodore 64, had 3, and a original Nintendo. They all felt unsatisfying. I boxed them up and donated all to a school. Why? I bought a Radio Shack Tandy 1000/TL2 PC, I knew nothing about how to use it, just that a PC could be used to do much more then playing games. FREEDOM RAINED. Key word FREEDOM, Freedom to choose, learn, explore, to have control, to have Fun! Microsoft DOS, and later MS Windows, etc. made it all possible, now and then. AOL, Prodigy and similar corporations basically lacked Heart and creativity. They developed ideas strictly based on profitability not people's real needs. So they created models focused on how much money they could drain from the consumer or Real People and measured how long the idea would last before people lost interest. Most people just USE whatever their given and hope it works. Enter - Uncle Mike, a computer enthusiast. . . No dude, you don't need AOL or anyone like them. All you need is a local Internet service provider at $5 to $15 a month, a terminal program, like Telex and or Windows Internet Explorer/browser and BAM! Your internet connection will rarely be lost, AOL can't create cookie tracking on YOUR computer and feed you AD's, no annoying YOU'VE GOT MAIL. A lot more freedom to do what you need to get done without interruption. AOL and the others didn't even invent anything, they borrowed money and jumped on the backs of people who did, to profit from them. We don't need companies like this. Detect and Avoid them now and in the future.

[@AwlrightProductions]

-be me -get to work 10 min ago -open laptop, plug in headphones -hmm, don't feel like music right now, maybe a podcast or something vocal -see this Thank you LGR.

[@miniwa1698]

> using wrong symbol

[@AwlrightProductions]

!~ i didnt want to use meme arrows here my friend

[@miniwa1698]

ohok

[@raidenthekat2444]

That Fish Chocolate..... Chocolate......CHOCOOOOAAATTTEEEEEEEE

[@MsHUGSaLOT]

AOL was my suppler of 3.5inch floppies back in the day.

[@freespuddy]

I erased and used a few myself.

[@baconfister]

Wow, great backstory on the AOL legacy! What deeply troubles me in the present-the year 2021-is that my sister still uses AOL. 🤦🏼‍♂️

[@GAMER_PUNK247]

What a nostalgia trip! I remember how freaking magical AOL was in the mid to late 90s..I would go around looking for free AOL floppy disks and CDs lol.. I still remember the sound of the 56k modem connecting to the network, it was so awesome, and you knew the sound is made when it was working lol.. followed by that voice "Welcome" and "You've got mail" (if you had any lol) something that was the best for me at the time, was the CHAT ROOMS! they were so fun! Especially since I was just hitting puberty, I was always excited to talk to girls lol.. i wish i could remember the exact specs of the computer i had back then..

[@98of99]

Clint, simply excellent story telling, you have mastered the artform. Besides the fact that you cover topics that are near and dear to my heart, your editing, scripting, and snark skills really are top notch. Now that you covered AOL, how about a stint on BBSes and BBS gaming like TradeWars? Love what you do, keep it coming!

[@SiliconClassics]

Fantastic mini-doc! Informative and entertaining. Clearly you did a lot of research.

[@LGR]

Thanks a lot, sir!

[@ares106]

My mom is still paying that subscription

[@xeon1111]

really?

[@xbell1232]

ares106 wow

[@Yusuke_Denton]

Why?

[@Bitterman5868]

Lol

[@ares106]

she has a lot of money, and is too lazy to cancel, she is practically paying 15 dollars a month for an EMAIL! lol

[@jesus_built_my_hotrod]

I'm old enough to have lived through the 80/90's internet coming of age. Your level of knowledge and research of the history of modern communications is really impressive!

[@MikeTXBC]

I remember when AOL switched from a per-hour system to a flat-rate subscription. The day that happened it was virtually impossible to actually log on since the servers were so overloaded the entire system was crashing.

[@TheWolvesCurse]

when i started playing guitar in the early 2000's i liked to use the free AOL cd's they gave away in stores, to make myself guitar picks out of them.

[@user-ir7rb6lg7d]

i remember begging my parents to switch providers to AOL because my friend had it and i was so jealous of the interface with all the built in chat rooms and games ect. apparantly my parents were more tech-savvy than i gave them credit for, because they luckily said no, which in hindsight i am glad they did, because apparantly AOL absolutely sucked at everything other than their gimicky member section.

[@sabrinaleedance]

Aol was my first experience with the internet, the chat rooms and message boards were so lit, but then my parents took off the parental controls for me (it blocked too many legitimate websites) and a whole new world was opened to me lol. I remember trying to watch a Fall out boy music video on dial up, it took probably 50 minutes to load the whole thing lol

[@MatthewBenson321]

Very well done retrospective. I specifically remember when the service went to unlimited use (IIRC it was early December 1994) and you literally went from having no problem connecting to spending ages trying to dial up and not get a busy signal from that day forward.

[@markarca6360]

13:52 - That is actually a cable company (TWC, or Time Warner Cable), which also provides Internet access via cable TV.

[@G_Confalonieri]

I remember as well free AOL cd's distribution within the most popular Newspaper in Buenos Aires around 1998/1999. Excelent video.

[@LimEightNine]

Oh lord, Bebo is a blast from the past. Most of my friends at school had Bebo accounts and I refused to sign up, saying Myspace was the future. That went well ;)

[@defiedreality8814]

Till Facebook killed them both.

[@sn9wm4n82]

Then twitter killed facebook

[@doubtful_seer]

Bebo was bigger for the European market. I had a MySpace account from about 14 to 19, but while I was 16 I lived in Belgium for a short time and everyone there, in the uk, and a long distance friend from la all used bebo and livejournal. God, I was going through a hell time, but I kinda miss those days. People were so much friendlier in general to each other as long as you stayed away from certain online circles. Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of drama and wank, but not so much the death wishes upon strangers in simple random comment sections that the internet is now.

[@MrSpacelyy]

@@sn9wm4n82 I actually don't know people personally who really use twitter. Might differ per location. Twitter has no real profile. People might sometimes like that instead of just retweeting stuff.

[@Techguyericd]

The Merger between AOL and Time Warner was the death shot for WCW. That was the worst part about the merger.

[@ToyfareMark]

WCW Ruins everything.

[@Techguyericd]

Who are you Puppet H?

[@Oscar95451]

Are there any problem with the merger between AOL and Time Warner, besides death of WCW

[@zh84]

Another extremely high quality video. As ever, thank you very much for posting.

[@LGR]

Thanks for watching!

[@webchimp]

Never had AOL myself, but I did know someone who subscribed but never used their services, just the connection. And because so few other people used it he always got a very good connection. Most people here seemed to use Freeserve or BT.

[@LordDonutz]

I had my own computer in my room, and my dad wouldnt let me have the password to logon to our internet service after 9:00. He would enter it in himself, but I found a way around that. I had access to AOL free monthly trial disks, so every night I would log on with those, this lasted for a couple years until he caught on. He was pissed off when he found out, but realized that the internet was huge and here to stay, so he just gave me the password, with some rules of course. God bless those free AOL cd's!

[@Ziimbiian]

In 2003 i got AOL, and they gifted me a Cap, a Coffee Cup with AOL printed on it and a Keychain

[@zap3704]

sweet

[@CaptTerrific]

they were clearly desperate at that point - i dont think i knew ANYONE without broadband by 2002

[@ashleymey3688]

I still had dial up in 2008...

[@brandonevans9342]

Higgins2001 bullshit. broadband is 25 Mbps or faster. most of USA doesn't have broadband likely they had high speed at best

[@CaptTerrific]

Interesting, I'd never heard of that technical distinction before. We always called it broadband for anything faster than ISDN, including DSL and Cable. Maybe it was just one of those examples of common usage of a term not matching the technical specification?

[@zod7444]

I used the AOL CD disks as coasters. Worked beautifully.

[@Rasmos]

"Murders and executions-I mean mergers and acquisitions" Caught that reference. ;))

[@AtomicBoo]

I remember using AOL in Mexico but only the software since we had to pay Telmex for internet connection, I remember my dad bought a second land line only for the internet to be able to stay online 24/7. AOL was an icon in Mexico even appearing in famous 90s Mexican band like OV7

[@mysticmind4563]

I remember seeing these trial installation disk in the mail all the time when I was little. Being a kid, I was just fascinated by the cool looking case that came with the disk.

[@POWERTW]

I remember using those AOL floppies for blanks when I needed them.

[@g-rod8529]

Who else remembers sliding up into someone's I.M, and hitting them with "Whats your asl?"

[@MoogieSRO]

Nobody ever typed that, it was just "asl?"

[@lunayoshi]

@@MoogieSRO 16/f/CA. u?

[@Tretij_rebenok]

@@lunayoshi everyone was from cali🤣🤣

[@Chaoitcme]

Oh 1997, the year that my family got AOL and easy access to the internet. This would be know as the year that the 13 year old me discovered online pornography.

[@crumplezone1]

So you have always paid for sex ? :)

[@christopherchancey1368]

@@crumplezone1 why would you when you later had lime wire, bear share, and frost wire!

[@danielzelpher7335]

Christopher Chancey don't forget Morpheus and E Donkey

[@personmcpersonface8894]

Everyone starts _somewhere!_

[@benakanecrophile2878]

That’s great.

[@DS9TREK]

The AOL name survived longer as an ISP in the UK than it did in the US. I signed up for AOL dial up in 2003 and upgraded to its broadband service starting at 1 Mbps in 2004. I stuck with them until 2015 when the name AOL was finally dropped by owners TalkTalk and all customers were migrated over to TalkTalk.

[@DanielleWhite]

There was a small footnote last year: AOL's former headquarters and adjacent buildings in Dulles, Virginia, was demolished to make way for a data center.

[@LGR]

☹️

[@TriegaDN]

Wait, there was a Neverwinter Nights game before NWN in the early 2000s? I had no idea there was a NWN from early 90s, and I have the boxes for the early 2000s neverwinter nights on my shelf. I was only a baby in the early 90s though.

[@waaaaaaah5135]

Asphodelle Rose It's a first for me too

[@javiers5599]

8:02 the funny thing about that Bret Hart AOL picture is that when AOL and time Warner merged, they were the ones who pulled World Championship Wrestling off of tv, leading to the WWF buying WCW and thus ending the Monday night wars

[@thomasrosebrough9062]

14:39 Most nostalgic part of the video. Good ol' addicting games has gone from that to briefly being owned by Nickelodeon. Also the Netflix ad on the next shot made my spit out my drink.

[@KAZ3EM]

The AOL/time warner deal was big, even WCW contracts of hulk hogan,scott hall, Kevin nash and all WCW wrestlers contracts were owned by AOL/time warner.

[@Sybertek]

I enjoyed AOL, but it made my job at an ISP difficult since it overwrote IP stacks on computer systems that wanted to use conventional providers. The world is completely different now, but I'll never forget this. I was more partial to Excite back in the day.

[@dowekeller]

I actually liked getting AOL floppies, because they could be formatted and reused. The CDs on the utter hand were useless.

[@praveensharma9893]

IF

[@AlbertStadt]

I used to get the latest version of Internet Explorer from those CDs

[@TylerSteven9]

They made great frisbies when we were kids, and I would cut them into basically disc saw-blades and stick them into things.

[@TheHowlingMan]

haha. we used to rev them up using a dremel and send them zipping down the driveway at 10k rpm

[@k-leb4671]

Maybe it was those AOL CDs that the previous owners of my home were hanging in the backyard.

[@CThompson17]

I remember getting it to work on my grandparents' PC back in the early 2000s. I was deep into GTA Vice City and wanted to look up cheat codes, but they didn't have internet access even though they had several AOL CDs laying around. So, I remember signing up for the service somehow and when I was finally able to access those cheat codes, I felt so happy. Geez, those were some times.

[@zunfren]

Nostalgia hits hard with this video. Bebo, aim, cyber sex. I remember it all fondly.

[@djhaloeight]

I remember first using America Online for the first time back in 1994. I was in junior high, 7th grade.. We had one computer in the Learning Resource Center that was online with AOL. It was a Mac LC III with an external 14.4 Global Village modem. This was back when AOL was $2.95 an hour outside of the free 5 or 10 hours you got per month, so we weren’t able to use it all that much. I do remember being very fascinated by the whole process...the dialing in with the modem squealing...”Welcome”...”You’ve got Mail!”. It was exciting stuff. My dad got us a Macintosh Performa 6300CD setup from Sears for Christmas in 1995, and we got America Online immediately, with a second phone line after we realized the first would be tied up nonstop. Me and my younger brother would have a timer and we’d take turns using the computer or going online for 30 minutes each. It was like the future had finally arrived.😄 If only I could show my younger self the amazing portable computers we all carry with us now, and have our faces glued to nonstop 😂

[@Zero11s]

there is no such thing as global, it is a lie. the word is worldwide, the black world with balls only exists in Hollywood

[@jageiosjgaeiojg]

man your long form videos are terrific.

[@thecstineman]

I could listen to lgr for the next 100 years and not get bored.

[@nasser314]

I live in Brasil, I just stoped using AOL Phone Based Internet in 2006 ! Before that, Normal Internet was just too expensive for me, I still remenber my first broad band... 512kb of net !. Those were the days..., them I got my first Mb, now I own 35 Mb in Optic Fiber Cable internet and holy shit, sometimes I forget how lucky I am

[@PCReloaded]

João Pedro Nasser 35Mb. That's fast. I get around 2mb

[@Bitterman5868]

Dude, my local cable service gave me a lifetime promotion which every year, the speed increased, due to our long time subscription, almost 16 years since we subscribed when their service started. it started with 10mb, then 20mb, this year it will increase to 35mb.

[@quinn2063]

I have 0.5mb, feels bad

[@Bitterman5868]

same goes to some places in US and Yurop its strange

[@TommyMG96]

João Pedro Nasser Does this mean I should finally Come to Brazil like everyone other Brazilian says to?

[@Fazeof1p]

I live in Canada, but I remember my parents getting a fuckton of AOL disks when I was a kid. Me and my siblings would used to fight each other because technically its a free floppy disc when you format all the AOL crap off it. Sometimes I wish AOL was still around to carry on this tradition. I could use more 3 GB flash drives :D ... Also AOL Instant messanger was my jam back in ye olden days of 2004. I stopped using it like 6 years ago only because everybody moved on to skype. AIM Still functions today, although I feel like the last person on Earth whenever I sign on because again.... everybody uses Skype and Facebook these days. Ah, the times and how they change...

[@Dekomata]

I still remember my family getting AOL discs in the mail every time. And then when we finally got a pc in 2000, I was excited to see the service in action (i was like 10). Given, despite there being faster internet options popping up during the early to late 2000s, my family was stuck with AOL for 7 years. I assume my mom wasn't getting on with the times and just sticking with dial up for 8 years because it does what it needed to do. And no one in my family knowing any better.

[@bchristian85]

During the dial-up era, AOL was always too expensive for my parents. We usually had something like Juno or NetZero. What did them in was their decision to push dial-up so hard in the mid 2000s, a time when people were switching to broadband and dial-up had become nearly unusable.