http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/13/aol-buys-bebo-for-750-million/
Meanwhile, in the world of social networking, AOL has taken a giant step in the wrong direction.
AOL’s intention, they told press in a briefing call this morning, is to marry AIM and ICQ with a proper social network.
I sure wish somebody would give an adequate definition of a "proper social network", as so many people seem to have it embedded in their thick skulls that "sharing photos" and "authoring original content" - two of the biggest selling points of Internet 2.0 services - are mutually exclusive from a "proper" social network. This reeks of Victorian-era elitism, where every person's life - and, indeed, their achievements - are pooh-poohed by freakishly financially endowed trust fund babies who haven't taken the silver spoon out of their mouths long enough to care what they do to the peasants working below them. Steve Case - a man who built an ISP from the ground up in an era that tried to hoist CompuServe and Prodigy on the poor, unsuspecting masses - would be PISSED were he not resting comfortably on the laurels of his creation and bound by law from further "interference" in his company's business.
http://www.peopleconnectionblog.com/2008/11/06/hometown-has-been-shutdown
It seems that America Online should change its name to Corporate America Online, as it's now less about catering to your average schmuck than to corporate schmucks. In fact, one of the first actions after the merger with Bebo, a business that did so poorly that it only scored $15 million one time in round-one venture? Pixnay, a popular Internet portal for camwhores and professional camwhores alike, closed its doors (ask me about grammatically-incorrect clods running ANY portion of a corporation's PR department another day). For being a corporation founded in the ideals of serving its regular clientele both quickly and efficiently, it's sure doing an awful lot to piss them off by spotaneously removing personal content that violates no policies whatsoever. Perhaps I could compete by putting up a single server, a "donate or die" button, and putting up a large "NO GUARANTEES" text at the top of the page. This issue - the net neutrality of businesses that have it in their charter that they're run "for the good of the community" - makes me feel so strongly that I even bothered to reply to the blog post about Pixnay, though I sincerely doubt anyone with any brains will bother reading the comment - or even allow it to reach the general public (read the content below).
You're running an EXTREMELY slipshod business that you're ignoring every customer issue that comes along. I can't say that this hasn't been par for the course for AOL since version 3.x or so, but with the introduction of Bebo it's just gotten worse. I, for one, won't miss you when you're filing for Chapter 11. Customer service does NOT involve "what a stallion does to a mare."
Perhaps AOL has finally hit that point where its continued operation is no longer in its members' best interests.
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