AOL's Future

Hi!

I'm written about this before on my old blog (the link for the old blog is in the sidebar), but for those of you who just want a new 24 post, here it is!

When I run out of things to do on the computer and need to dilly-dally-shilly-shally (got that from F.F. - Advent Children), I usually go and try to find something or other to download. Sometimes, when I think about it, I'll go and look at AOL.com's download site. According to AOL, "AOL is changing! See what's new >>>". That's what they say, anyway.

What's new? Everything that you used to pay AOL to get, is now free. Videos, Music, Email, etc... If you want them as an ISP (Internet Service Provider) you still have to pay for the actual connection. The significance of this is that if you don't want AOL as an ISP you can still keep your AOL email address.

Think about it... usually if you don't want to use [blank] as your ISP the only thing that might stop you would be the hassle of having to change your email address.

Now in my mind, if AOL was concerned about "locking in" their customers, you would utilize whatever tactic was available right?

Okay, so this make me wonder. Is AOL considering getting out of the ISP business eventually? It seems entirely possible. They own a lot of different other websites, not just AOL.com. They would still make a lot of money off of the other websites what they own. Many people don't like to use AOL as and ISP anyway so it would be good for their reputation (maybe).

I could be horribly wrong or this theory may not hold any water at all, but either way, it made sense to me and you have seen into that deep dark corner of my brain that formulates weirdish ideas and thoughts 24-7. I hope you at least found it interesting.

ZB24 ;-)