Talk:AOL

Disgruntlement over user profiles

There is a notable thread of AOL history that is missing from the article:

At one time, most AOL users had an online "profile" hosted by the AOL Hometown service. When AOL Hometown was discontinued, users had to create a new profile on Bebo. This was an unsuccessful attempt to create a social network that would compete with Facebook. When the value of Bebo decreased to a tiny fraction of the $850 million AOL paid for it, users were forced to recreate their profiles yet again, on a new service called "AOL Lifestream."

AOL took the decision to shut down Lifestream on 24 February 2017, and gave users one month's notice to save off photos and videos that had been uploaded to Lifestream. Following the shutdown, AOL no longer provides any option for hosting user profiles.

During the Hometown/Bebo/Lifestream era, a user's profile could be displayed by clicking the "Buddy Info" button in the AOL Desktop software. After the shutdown of Lifestream, clicking "Buddy Info" does something that provides no information whatsoever about the selected buddy: it causes the AIM home page (www.aim.com) to be displayed.

This information should probably go into the Criticism section, because each of these "forced migrations," culminating in the complete termination of user profiles in 2017, contributed to the disgruntlement of AOL's user base. 75.163.201.149 (talk)

References

AOL dial up internet shut down edit request

Hello since aol dialup internet shutdown is it possible to edit the article? Thanks Laniakea1 (talk) 15:51, 2 October 2025 (UTC)

I agree. It’s been 7 months since AOL Media LLC has shut down its dial-up service, and it still hasn’t been included in this article 🙄 Livingroom Productions (talk) 11:31, 23 May 2026 (UTC)

It was already mentioned once, but I've added a second mention to the history section. Suriname0 (talk) 18:53, 23 May 2026 (UTC)

Move article to AOL Media LLC

The official name of AOL is AOL Media LLC, so in my opinion, it would be good if this article was moved there. AOL would be kept as a redirect, and AOL would still be referred to as AOL. Livingroom Productions (talk) 11:27, 23 May 2026 (UTC)

• Per Wikipedia:Naming conventions (companies) we default to the most common name. Few companies have a page that matches their legal corporation name, especially including LLC's and whatnot. Unless people and the media suddenly are referring to the company as AOL Media LLC all the time and just calling it AOL is unusual, there's no need to move. --Here2rewrite (talk) 12:32, 23 May 2026 (UTC)

  Why do we default to the most-common name? Livingroom Productions (talk) 18:01, 23 May 2026 (UTC)

  See Wikipedia:Article titles for more discussion, but generally because the common name is more recognizable, natural, precise, and concise than the legal name. Cheers, Suriname0 (talk) 18:48, 23 May 2026 (UTC)

History of AOL Software

The given account really skips over the role that Apple played in the creation of the AOL software. Apple partnered with Quantum to create AppleLink which was a behind-the-scenes bulletin board used by Apple employees, suppliers and developers. Much in the same way that Slack, Discord and Teams are used now. Then Apple worked with Quantum to create a consumer version of the software. When Apple pulled out, Quantum finished and released the software as America Online. At first it was only for Apple computers. Due to demand, a PC version was created but the system was physically separate from the Apple version. Forums and features were separate. Access to the internet was added after some time. Later, AOL merged the two systems much to the consternation of the Apple users. Apple later forked the AOL software to create their own eWorld online service which did not last long. I do not have any citations but I lived through it. There is some additional information from an old timer in this MacWorld article: https://www.macworld.com/article/2874277/aol-dial-up-says-goodbye-without-apple-it-might-not-have-changed-the-world.html Rammjet1561234 (talk) 22:21, 18 July 2026 (UTC)