[ih] AOL in perspective

[Andrew Sullivan]

This is mighty interesting, but since this is a history list I just want to note that it does not completely jibe with my own recollections of having to deal with AOL.

In particular, when starting a new gTLD (INFO) in 2001, I observed that AOL was not really connected to the Internet in the usual sense: it would cache some responses from TLD DNS servers for longer than the TTL on the NS RRSET record, which meant that the INFO plan of making a promise that DNS changes would show up within 24 hours was hard to keep (because of AOL's size).

It is entirely possible that they wanted to build a connection to the Internet or be an Internet-first company, but the tendency for AOL to be a gateway system with the Internet "over there" makes me sceptical that AOL just wanted to be another ISP.

Best regards,

A

On Tue, Aug 19, 2025 at 09:44:11PM -0500, Vint Cerf via Internet-history wrote:
>I asked Steve Case about AOL's ultimately adoption of Internet as a
>transport medium. Here is his answer (sharing with permission):
>
>Steve Case
>7:15 PM (2 hours ago)
>to me
>
>Hi Vint.  When we launched in 1985 we of course had to build everything
>ourselves, as the Internet was still limited to non commercial use.  And
>the only way to access online serv ices of that era (The Source,
>CompuServe, etc) was via the x.25 dialup networks provided by Sprint,
>Tymnet, etc   We got started with limited bandwidth (300 baud!) and limited
>CPU capability (Commodore 64!) and that forced some design decisions -
>including loading graphics onto floppy discs so we didn’t have to transmit
>much data, but could have a compelling graphics interface (unlike the other
>offerings which were all text only).  We did the best we could with this
>“doing our own thing” strategy while we waited for the day that we could
>add Internet features (email etc) to our offerings and leverage the
>Internet data capabilities to provide a TCP/IP alternative to X.25 (which
>we became convinced was more scalable with faster speeds and lower costs).
>We also worked for several years to get Congress to commercialize the
>Internet, ultimately leading to the Telecom Act.  We were as I recall the
>first “online service” to add WAIS, Gopher, etc to our service, when it was
>allowed, and also were early and fairly aggressive investors in building
>out TCP-IP networks (including buying ANS from IBM so we could build more
>network capacity more quickly and be less reliant on providers such as
>Sprint, who were trying to milk their legacy x.25 networks and were
>therefore slow to invest in TCP/IP).   That enabled us to then be able to
>move from hourly pricing to flat rate unlimited pricing which – no surprise
>– propelled our growth. And we then started making various AOL features
>(such as instant messaging/texting) as Internet features that didn’t
>require AOL membership (including AOL Instant Messenger – AIM).  And then
>we started buying Internet companies including Netscape and many others (
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_AOL).  So the simple
>answer to your question is when we started in 1985 we had to do everything
>ourselves as it was illegal for us to connect to the Internet, but over the
>next decade we were all in – in many ways – to embrace the Internet – and
>ultimately AOL’s dramatic growth in the late 1990s was because it was the
>easiest, cheapest, fastest way for consumers to be on the Internet, and we
>offered a range of other services that were exclusive to AOL – so we were
>able to successfully position AOL as “the Internet and a whole lot more”
>and leverage to ease of use with branding focused on “it’s s easy to use,
>no wonder it’s #1”.   At the time I remember that some (including public
>market investors) viewed the Internet as a threat to AOL, but I believed it
>was an opportunity, and that’s why we went from being a small company to a
>big company fairly quickly (market cap went from $70m when we went public
>in 1992 to $160b eght years later when we merged with Time Warner in 2000).
>
>
>
>-- 
>Please send any postal/overnight deliveries to:
>Vint Cerf
>Google, LLC
>1900 Reston Metro Plaza, 16th Floor
>Reston, VA 20190
>+1 (571) 213 1346
>
>
>until further notice
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Andrew Sullivan
ajs at crankycanuck.ca