AOL Finally Realized AIM Is A Social Network... Two Years Too Late

from the a-bit-slow-on-the-uptake-there dept

Fri, Apr 21st 2006 1:24am — Mike Masnick

Some blogs started spreading a rumor this week that AOL was working on its own "MySpace-killer," which honestly isn't that surprising. Given the attention that MySpace has been getting, just about every big online company seems to be working out ideas for building "their" MySpace. However, with all the buzz, AOL's own Ted Leonsis decided to head on over to his own blog to clarify. In it, he makes the big revelation that AOL has finally realized that their instant messaging platform AIM really is a social network, and rather than build a MySpace killer, they're simply looking to add social networking features to AIM. Of course, plenty of people asked why they weren't doing this two years ago, when it actually might have made a difference.

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28 Comments

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Laughing, 21 Apr 2006 @ 1:53am

Heh
No shock there, took them seven years to realize that dial-up wasn't the wave of the future....
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- Dial-Tone, 21 Apr 2006 @ 2:46am
  
  Re: Heh
  While dial-up isn't the wave of the future, it is the only option in many places (esp. in places where the other option is satellite internet which is presently at least 3x more expensive and AO-hell's rising monthly fee).
  
  Where, you ask? America's heartland for one. The breadbasket appears to not be wired as of yet. Even hotels out there have really horrible "high speed" internet (which I keep finding out is largely a la satellite).
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  - Hegemon, 21 Apr 2006 @ 7:45am
    
    Re: Re: Heh
    "Not wired????" And I suppose we drive horses to work, too? I don't know where you get your information, but I have lived in Kansas and Nebraska all my life, and we have the same internet access available as anyone else in the country. The only thing I haven't seen here yet is FiOS, which is just barely available anywhere yet. Sure, the rural farmers don't have broadband in some areas, but that's true of rural areas everywhere. Then again, my dad lives 15 miles outside of city limits on a farm, and he gets 3MBit DSL. So, seriously, before you go spreading mor erumors about the "primitive" heartland, do your research.
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Andrew Fife, 21 Apr 2006 @ 2:15am

myspace for adults?
I wonder if this will turn into myspace for adults?
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- dan, 21 Apr 2006 @ 7:00am
  
  Re: myspace for adults?
  I can not conceive of anything AOL offers being for adults.
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Jake, 21 Apr 2006 @ 4:23am

Saturated?
How many "myspaces" can there be before the market is saturated? Or do you think that enough improvements can be continually made to get people to switch from their long time "homes"?
And what is the solution for those too far from towns for highspeed?
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- jim, 21 Apr 2006 @ 4:37am
  
  Re: Saturated?
  I think there is still room.
  
  Myspace is far from perfect.. and they are slow to improve or add the features people want.
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Leo, 21 Apr 2006 @ 4:42am

oh boy
Yeah the market gonna over flow with all these wana be myspaces and the like. Life would be so much easier, if they could make this hudge partner ship put ideas and resources together to make a "super myspace.'' That way you wouldn't have to have 10 accounts on 10 different my space type websites to find friends and signifigant others.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2006 @ 5:28am

heck, when I want friends and significant others, I head on down to the local tavern. Now, if they could figure out how to put that online...... THAT's the wave of the future.
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Fl.Gulfer, 21 Apr 2006 @ 5:41am

AOL
I don't understand why people pay these companys for internet access, I thought it was free with your Broadband or Dial-up connection. I know mine is.
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- MrMarmite, 21 Apr 2006 @ 6:50am
  
  Re: AOL
  That has to be the most AOL comment ever.
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- Eric, 21 Apr 2006 @ 7:08am
  
  Re: AOL
  A classic example of an AOhell user! LOL
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Peter Griffen, 21 Apr 2006 @ 6:17am

AOL should learn from Enron....the CEO's would make more money that way and the world would be a better place after. No more lieing, poor decision making on what people 'want', and definately no more ignorant PC users that are baby fed crap online. When I dropped AOL for RoadRunner 6 years ago, it was like being unplugged from the Matrix. Why cant people understand that there is so much more than a restricted internet?
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ummmm, 21 Apr 2006 @ 6:31am

AOL and Roadrunner are both owned by Time Warner. So from switch from one to another you really weren't "unplugging from the matrix", you were just connecting to a faster version of "the matrix"
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phreakindee, 21 Apr 2006 @ 6:38am

unplugged from the matrix of AOL software/spyware though, for sure
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zeroth404, 21 Apr 2006 @ 6:42am

why don't we focus on getting RID of myspace and idiots that don't belong on the internet, but instead somewhere in a bard looking to get laid?

Sorry, I'm old fashioned when it comes to the internet. its a place to discuss and share things that matter -- not your teenage love life.

cesspool.
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- Zeroth404, 21 Apr 2006 @ 6:43am
  
  Re:
  bard == bar;
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- Dan, 21 Apr 2006 @ 8:30am
  
  Re:
  Haha, sorry buddy. I'm a teen and that's definitely one of the things i don't talk about online. Cheers.
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2006 @ 11:18am
  
  Re: lets get RID of myspace
  Every time i land on a myspace page i am assaulted with an indecipherable visual cacophony. It is like I am viewing some alien species' communication medium. Very disconcerting.
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  - Pedren, 21 Apr 2006 @ 7:18pm
    
    Re: Re: lets get RID of myspace
    "Every time i land on a myspace page i am assaulted with an indecipherable visual cacophony. It is like I am viewing some alien species' communication medium. Very disconcerting."
    
    Aye, you do have a good point with the overzealousness of the average profile when it comes to picture, music and other junk, but completely getting rid of the system I think would be not in the best interests of the people who pay 3/4 of a million dollars for home page ads a day.
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Luke, 21 Apr 2006 @ 7:12am

The internet has changed...it's just visible now
Zeroth, when I was a teenager and on the net I did the same thing except I did it on a Geocities page (right before Yahoo bought it).

The discussion and things that matter are the teenage love lives to the teenagers. Sorry, but what matters to you doesn't matter to everyone.

That's the beautiful part of the internet: I don't have to hear or see your conversation about worthless BS because I don't have to visit your webpage.
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- Luke, 21 Apr 2006 @ 7:14am
  
  Re: The internet hasn't changed...it's just visibl
  Blasted typos. My subject should read: The Internet hasn't changed...it's just visible.
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Leah, 21 Apr 2006 @ 7:47am

Myspace: Here's the catch
The crap hole that Myspace is, you have to remember...the 16 year olds flocking to it are going to be in YOUR shoes in ten, twenty years.

That's what myspace is banking on, (literally), and because of that they will listen to teenagers wants and needs above yours. Those teenagers with the silly bulletins and pictures are future IT support, game developers, software developers, bankers, lawyers and CEOs.

Myspace is making smart decisions for the future success of it's own company, and you HAVE to respect that.
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sheshe, 21 Apr 2006 @ 8:58am

psst... got a revelation
watch out here~ we got a genius amongst us, but wait here's one for you.... are you listening?...

...the internet is a social network. BAM! How you like that for a revelation?
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2006 @ 9:07am
  
  Re: psst... got a revelation
  And here I've been thinking it was just a convenient method to time share my unused processor time.
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tk121, 21 Apr 2006 @ 9:08am

They're a mess...
AOL is too concerned with adding "features" to AIM that increase the delivery of advertising, and ways of somehow turning a free service into a way for them to make money.

What they don't realize (and never will) is that this only serves to drive users further away, instead of actually attracting new ones.

A lot of companies are doign this now, but for a company that is desperately grasping for market share, you think they'd be a little more careful with the one remaining thing they DO have.

As usual, they've gone and F'ed it all up.

Good riddance, hopefully they'll just go bankrupt already, and do everyone a favor.
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- people people, 21 Apr 2006 @ 9:32am
  
  Re: They're a mess...
  Throwing around comments about a business doing things wrong and f'ing things all up, and hoping they "just go bankrupt already," is pretty lame. All these large companies that you all hate, are obviously not going to go bankrupt, and apparently, they are doing something right, as they are still in business.
  
  Companies like AOL or MS or any other leading company could easily ignore the "social network" buzz a la myspace, and they would be just fine.
  
  Stop hating and sounding like an ignorant individual, and just accept that there is nothing you can do, or will upon these companies to make them disappear.
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Paul, 21 Apr 2006 @ 10:32am

Most of the people on myspace can't get into a bar is why
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