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America Online

AOL To Launch Blogging Service 197

Posted by timothy from the tipping-the-bandwagon dept.
Jorkapp writes "Later this summer, AOL will launch its 'AOL Journals' blog service, provided free to its members. AOL Journals (named as such, since a survey showed the average user found the word 'blog' to be confusing) will allow users to post text, pictures, and voice entries. More information can be found at the Washington Post."
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AOL To Launch Blogging Service More

AOL To Launch Blogging Service

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  • The average AOL user (Score:5, Funny)

    by WTFmonkey ( 652603 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:17PM (#6428625)
    ...also found the words "unlimited," "free," and "useful" to be confusing.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:22PM (#6428665)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re:The average AOL user (Score:5, Funny)

        by Lord_Slepnir ( 585350 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:52PM (#6428847) Journal
        After they continued to bill my account after they told me I had canceled, I found it easier to go right to my bank and I issue a stop payment. I replied with a goatse printout when they sent me a 'Why aren't we getting your money'. Never heard from them again.

      • Re:The average AOL user (Score:5, Funny)

        by mesach ( 191869 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @01:20PM (#6428989)
        I called up to cancel one time after i used them while i was waiting for my DSL hookup at the new place, and the girl was giving me a hard time about it... trying to get me to listen to her schpiel...

        Me: can i cancel my account,

        Her: but what if i give you aol for free for 3 months...

        Me: i really want to cancel.

        Her: let me sign you up its free and you have nothing to lose...

        Me: No I would like to cancel i have dsl now.

        Her: I can sign you up for AOL for Broadband for 3 months for free...

        Me: (Frustrated) OK what have you got...

        Her: going into her schpeil about the AOL for Broadband BS, when she gets to the part about, "then I cancel at any time before the 3 months are up and you will not be charged"

        Me: (Grinning) Then can I cancel NOW?

        Her: (MAD) Yes you can
        • That's funny but in the future please get the phone/recorder adaptor from rat shack, hook this up to your phone and a recorder or staight into your computer and then put an MP3 of the recorded deed on your.....BLOG.

          Ahhahahahahaha.

          The idea is to ge them to scream at you and make threats without doing any screaming yourself.

          I need to sit down and do this up again for telemarketers and other market trash. SO:

          You get a point for each minute you tie them up whether on hold or not, you CANNOT BE PAYING FOR TH

    • karma to burn (Score:3, Informative)

      by einer ( 459199 )
      me too!
    • Blob. I guess I've worked with data too long.
    • The average AOL user finds the internet confusing. And most shiny objects.

  • Bloogle (Score:2, Interesting)

    by squashed ( 664265 )
    With AOL's announcement, maybe Google will finally incorporate their acquired Pyra Labs technology explicitly into Google.com.

    Bloogle, anyone?

    • Re:Bloogle (Score:3, Informative)

      by generic-man ( 33649 )
      They already have, sort of. The Beta Google Toolbar includes a "BlogThis" button, similar to the Bookmarklet that Blogger offered before.

      I wouldn't mind a blog-only search engine, considering how much noise blogs have added to the web. It's so annoying to search for a song lyric or quote to find the source, only to find that thousands of blogs have cleverly used it as a title.
      • -site:www.genericblogservice.com

        Yeah, doesn't get rid of the people using embed blogs on their webpages, but generally they tend to be a big more interesting. I have actually come across some of the things I was searching for in other's blogs, so it isn't all bad.


      • There are blog-oriented search engines. The idea is pretty cool, but I find the results to be pretty garbled. Their results remind me of the early days of search engines. I guess I've been spoiled by Google. :-)

        Daypop [daypop.com] (seems to be offline at the moment...)

        Feedster [feedster.com]

  • blog confusing (Score:5, Funny)

    by athakur999 ( 44340 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:19PM (#6428642) Journal
    named as such, since a survey showed the average user found the word 'blog' to be confusing

    The average user also thinks creating a buzzword for keeping a journal, an idea that has existed for centuries, is stupid.
    • named as such, since a survey showed the average user found the word 'blog' to be confusing
      The average user also thinks creating a buzzword for keeping a journal, an idea that has existed for centuries, is stupid.
      Gah....! Exactly! I've despised the word "blog" ever since I first heard it. I tolerage weblog, but the last thing we need is a buzzword for a buzzword.
    • This word shows the worst side of tech--inventing a word for something that A) already exists in the physical world and B) has undergone ZERO changes outside of being ported to new technology.

      Since both are true, the word "Journal" works just fine.

      • Re:*blog* definitely sucks (Score:5, Funny)

        by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @01:09PM (#6428935) Journal
        "This word shows the worst side of tech--inventing a word for something that A) already exists in the physical world and B) has undergone ZERO changes outside of being ported to new technology."

        What about "C) just sounds plain awful"?. Blog. Blegh. Imagine this conversation of a mother and AOL subscriber, and her 14 year old son:
        "Johnnie, what are you doing?"

        - "I'm blogging, ma!"
        "Stop that right now!!! You'll go blind!"

        By the way, the tech world will indeed invent awful new words for things covered by your points A), and B). Business, however, will patent them.
      • You realize that it is a contraction of "Web log" right?

        --Joey
    • a survey showed the average user found the word 'blog' to be confusing

      They just need to translate it into AOL:

      "DUDE!!1 A bl0g iz a plaze 4 ur shit dat u write n stuff! U can put linkz n shit in there! Write back, k?"
      • "DUDE!!1 A bl0g iz a plaze 4 ur shit dat u write n stuff! U can put linkz n shit in there! Write back, k?"

        Say, that's pretty good. You must have been talking with the undergraduate in our lab. Seriously, this dude walks in talking schnizzle this and fizzle that and he honestly writes his emails like that. I feel really old sometimes....

    • ... but rather a contraction. The name makes perfect sense. It's a log of what I do, on the web. A "Weblog" if you will. If you would prefer I'll use an apostrophe such as the one's used in can't and don't to so I removed letters. In this case the "we" has been removed instead of an 'o,' 'cause (notice apostrophe) "we" are definitely not on the same page.

      'blog

      See that wasn't so bad. (Apologies for the sarcasm but I just woke from a nap.)

    • Blog is short for Weblog. Slashdot is a weblog with comments. How is robotwisdom.com (site of the guy who coined the word weblog) anything like a traditional journal or a diary?

      Reverse chronological links updated every so often does not make a journal.

  • I wish AOL would fix what they have first (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:20PM (#6428646)
    I wish AOL would fix what they have first before adding new things like this Blogger that others likely do better anyway:

    Specifically, their e-mail system:

    1) They have absolutely no spam filtering (ability to get only e-mail from approved addresses, or blocking the exact address a spam comes from does not count). The free services have better e-mail than AOL.

    2) They don't have a way to download complete intact e-mails (file cabinet does not handle attachments.

    3) They have a "feature" that destroys e-mails that are left in the inbox for more than a few weeks. Since they make it tough to download them, this means you have to constantly forward them to yourself to keep them there.

  • Thanks AOL! (Score:5, Funny)

    by RocketJeff ( 46275 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:20PM (#6428656) Homepage
    I never found the word 'blog' to be confusing - just stupid.

    Thanks to AOL for naming it something else instead.

  • Informal Review already released (Score:5, Informative)

    by SpriteGF ( 592700 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:21PM (#6428658) Homepage
    Here's one weblogger's take [buzzmachine.com] on the service. Most notably, the author quotes,
    The demo was going to be off-the-record, but because the opinion grinders in the room didn't turn the team into mincemeat -- reaction started with "this doesn't suck" (noted as high praise indeed), and quickly elevated to "they have a clue," and ended with "good job"...
  • AOL to the blogging community:

    ME TOO!

  • I guess this means... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by WegianWarrior ( 649800 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:22PM (#6428664) Journal

    ..that blogging can be officially declared out, just as the newsgroups was when someone let the hordes from AOL in.

    On the other hand, it's good to see that an IPS can do more than just take your money and provide shitty service :-)

    • ..that blogging can be officially declared out, just as the newsgroups was when someone let the hordes from AOL in.

      Can't see what you mean here. I for one use nntp daily, and have best conversations there (I do admit that I'm using Finnish/sfnet side of it, it's quite rural). I also do a blog, but it's less active than my nntp side. (My whole site is run by a blog software blosxom).

    • How is that the same? It might be similar if say, up until this time AOL users couldn't access LiveJournal or Blog, and now they can -- but that is not what is happening. I don't even see how increased exposure to the web technique of journaling would cause a problem. LiveJournal is semi-exclusive, you have to know somebody to get in, and the official Blog service is less homogenized than LiveJournal, so an influx of users wouldn't hurt it that much, assuming there even would be one. If AOL's journalling fe
    • I wouldn't say that if AOL starts a blogging service, blogging is suddenly "out". It has definately passed the first, "underground" (do you have a better word?) stage and will cease to be "in" or trendy pretty soon, but this only means it will become mainstream. Still a long way to "out".

      (Or maybe I just completely missed your point...)

      • Unfortunately, "out" has multiple meaning in this context.

        I assumed from his usage that it was "out" as in "coming out of the closet". "Out" is a pretty common word to describe something about someone/something that used to be concealed, but now is no longer.

        Then again, maybe it is actually "out" as in "not cool anymore"...
    • that blogging can be officially declared out, just as the newsgroups was when someone let the hordes from AOL in.

      Honestly, now the great unwashed of AOL (I have used AOL, but I shower) have no idea what a newsgroup is unless they are shown. Maybe this new "feature" will give the stupid ones someplace else to say "Me too!" and they will forget about nttp all together.

    • blogging can be officially declared out, just as the newsgroups was when someone let the hordes from AOL in.

      Newsgroups are a shared medium. AOL users flooded the Usenet news groups, degrading the experience for all newsgroup readers. Blogs are written by one person or group. Nobody is forcing you to read AOL Journals. Nobody is forcing AOL Journal entries into YOUR blog.
  • I can't seem to see how AOL is ever planning on making money. Their business model is so violent flawed, it makes me want to gouge my eyes out .. but I'll explain..
    See, Yahoo! has a good idea, they realized that they should provide services, but charge. It works, that's how capitalism functions.
    AOL on the other hand believes that they can keep giving things away, CDs, Cases, Journals now, everything, but they fail to realize that in a world where business is dependent on profit not on sister company c

  • What's left to dumb down for AOLers? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    As if their web pages weren't insipid enough, now they're gonna have blogs? Great.

    AOL, the short bus on the information superhighway.

  • You've got prank! (Score:3, Funny)

    by mikeophile ( 647318 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:23PM (#6428674)
    AOL's instant-messaging system or by telephone. The phone option will be available only to subscribers to the extra-cost "AOL by Phone" service, who will be able to leave voice messages that will be posted as MP3 sound files

    This will prove a boon to the AOL crank callers who wish to blog their exploits via three-way calling.

    Thank you AOL for providing a solution to this urgent need.

  • helpful (Score:4, Funny)

    by Fux the Pengiun ( 686240 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:23PM (#6428678)
    This, I think, will certainly help the fledgling Weblog (or 'blog) industry. I know that more ane more of these have been popping up all over the internet, and there have been a lot of Slashdot stories about them, but I hadn't ever really bothered to follow any, as most of them are just rants about auto racing or something.

    Anyway, now I think blogs will become a much bigger factor on the internet with a name like AOL behind them. I know if I were surfing around the internet, and just come across somebody's blog (I guess we'll all be calling them Journals, now), anyway, if I came across somebody's Journal, I probably wouldn't care that much, but if it's got a brand like AOL on it, I think I can expect a little higher quality, and maybe some of that will rub off on the rest of the Journalists (or should it be Journalistas now?) out there. I mean, look at what AOL did for USENET? Before AOL get their tech-savvy users on that thing, it was just a dead service full of posts about Nazis and modern art. now it's a place to really do some business! Maybe AOL can repeat their success in the blogging (journaling!) field!

  • Confusing, no. Stupid, yes. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Paul Carver ( 4555 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:25PM (#6428691)
    I'm not an AOL user, but I find the term "blog" stupid, not confusing.

    It's a freaking diary, keep it under your bed. What makes you thing the rest of the world gives a damn. And if you're too stupid or lazy to say "weblog" and have to save two characters, then I guess it makes sense that you're too stupid and lazy to learn something as simple as HTML.
    • "Weblog" is a bit ambiguous: it could also mean the contents of my /var/log/apache/access.log. (And that same file also shows that the rest of the world does appear to give a damn.)

    • Re:Confusing, no. Stupid, yes. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by FunkSoulBrother ( 140893 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @01:40PM (#6429088)
      I'm not a big fan of online journals or "weblogs", but come on dude, is it really necessary for everyone to learn HTML just so they can publish whatever they want to publish on the web?

      I mean it would be a nice skill, but not everyone is interested.

      Do you stand around outside of restaurants, yelling at people for being "too stupid and lazy to learn something as simple as" cooking?
      • I know html very well and you need to know more than that to do a blog from scratch, unless you like tons of typing. A program like moveable type is really necessary. Anyone blogging with just HTML files is an idiot.

    • It's a freaking diary, keep it under your bed. What makes you thing the rest of the world gives a damn.

      Perhaps I'm [weblogs.com] an interesting [linux.org.uk] mind [oreillynet.com], worth [osafoundation.org] observing [patrickweb.com]. Perhaps I like to lay down my thoughts so they can be discussed among my peers. Perhaps I don't view the world in such an egocentric way, to believe adding my part to the knowledge pool won't amplify my results.

      See, there's lots of reasons for blogging. As for the term, the beauty of it or the need for a new term: it's discussible, naturally, but I bel

    • It's a (digital) diary... no it's a (online) journal... no it's a (web)log.
      Blog at least is consistent and can be filtered out of google's search results via -blog.
    • "What makes you thing the rest of the world gives a damn. And if you're too stupid or lazy to say "weblog" and have to save two characters, then I guess it makes sense that you're too stupid and lazy to learn something as simple as HTML"

      Say, I resend(done with bold) that!

      --Joey
    • And if you're too stupid or lazy to say "weblog" and have to save two characters, then I guess it makes sense that you're too stupid and lazy to learn something as simple as HTML

      Let's see how lazy you are for fun:
      I'm == I am = 1 character saved
      AOL == America Online = 11 characters saved
      It's == It is = 1 character saved
      you're == you are = 1 character saved
      you're == you are = 1 characters saved
      HTML == HyperText Markup Language = 22 characters

      Total characters saved = 39 characters. Man you are off the scale

      • Let's see how lazy YOU are for fun:

        And if you're too stupid or lazy to say "weblog" and have to save two characters, then I guess it makes sense that you're too stupid and lazy to learn something as simple as HTML

        Let's see how lazy you are for fun:
        I'm == I am = 1 character saved
        AOL == America Online = 11 characters saved
        It's == It is = 1 character saved
        you're == you are = 1 character saved
        you're == you are = 1 characters saved
        HTML == HyperText Markup Language = 22 characters

        Total characters save

  • Anyone worried (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mindstrm ( 20013 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:25PM (#6428698)
    about content ownership? With all these blog hosting services... do the licenses permit them to republish your information? What kind of information are they gathering out of all those blogs, neatly stored on their servers?

    We freak out about the government wanting to pry into anything, yet we see no issue when the largest ISP on earth wants to encourage everyone to post their innermost thoughts online for all to see, to be forever archived by the googlebot?
    • "Content" Ownership?

      I've read a lot of what people call 'blogs.' My educated opinion is there ain't a whole lot of people outside of the proud authors looking to lay claim to any of that "content." I'd also guess that most of the authors will wish they themselves couldn't claim ownership in, say, five years from now.
      • Blogs are a potential marketing goldmine, especially when you're looking at the mainstream-and-gullible market that AOL occupies. Working out what teenagers and young adults want before anyone else is a very frightening (and lucrative) realm, so I'm guessing ownership of thousands of blogs would somewhat help that cause.

        The word and news bursts at www.daypop.com are a great example of how blogs can have data extracted from them.

  • Blog of and AOL user (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nighttime ( 231023 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:26PM (#6428699) Homepage Journal
    july 18 - i just tried to connect to america online. ive heard it is the best online service i can get. i cant connect. i dont know what is wrong.
    july 19 - some guy at the tech support center says my computer needs a modem. i dont see why. hes just trying to cheat me. how dumb does he think i am?
    july 22 - i bought the modem. i couldnt figure out where it goes. it wouldnt fit in the moniter or the printer. im confused.
    july 23 - i finally got the modem in and hooked up. that nine year old next door did it for me. but it still dont work. i cant get online.
    july 25 - that nine year old kid next door hooked me up to america online for me. hes so smart. i told the kid he was a prodigy. but he says thats just another service. what a modest kid. hes so smart and he does these services for people. anyway hes smarter then the jerks who sold me the modem. they didnt even tell me about communications software. bet they didnt know. and why do they put two telephone jack holes in the back of a modem when you only need one? and why do they have one labeled phone when you are not suppose to hook it to the phone jack on the wall? i thought the dial tone sounded funny! boy are modem makers dumb! but the kid figured it out by the sound.
    july 26 - whats the internet? i thought i was on america online. not this internet thing. im confused.
    july 27 - the nine year old kid next door showed me how to use this america online stuff. i told him he must be a genius. he says that he is compared to me. maybe hes not so modest after all.
    july 28 - i tried to use chat today. i tried to talk into my computer but nothing happened. maybe i need to buy a microphone.
    july 29 - i found this thing called usenet. i got out of it because im connected to america online not usenet.
    july 30 - these people in this usenet thing keep using capital letters. how do they do that? i never figured out how to type capital letters. maybe they have a different type of keyboard.
    JULY 31 - I CALLED THE COMPUTER MAKER I BOUGHT IT FROM TO COMPLAIN ABOUT NOT HAVING A CAPITOL LETTER KEY. THE TECH SUPPORT GUY SAID IT WAS THIS CAPS LOCK KEY. WHY DIDN'T THEY SPELL IT OUT? I TOLD HIM I GOT A CHEAP KEYBOARD AND WANTED A BETTER ONE. AND ONE OF MY SHIFT KEYS ISNT THE SAME SIZE AS THE OTHER. HE SAID THATS A STANDARD. I TOLD HIM I DIDN'T WANT A STANDARD KEYBOARD BUT ANOTHER BRAND. I MUST HAVE HAD AN IMPORTANT COMPLAINT BECAUSE I HEARD HIM TELL THE OTHER SUPPORT GUYS TO LISTEN IN ON OUR CONVERSATION.
    AUGUST 1 - I FOUND THIS THING CALLED THE USENET ORACLE. IT SAYS THAT IT CAN ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS I ASK IT. I SENT IT 44 SEPERATE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE INTERNET. I HOPE IT RESPONDS SOON.
    AUGUST 2 - I FOUND A GROUP CALLED REC.HUMOR. I DECIDED TO POST THIS JOKE ABOUT THE CHICKEN THAT CROSSED THE ROAD. TO GET TO THE OTHER SIDE! HA! HA! I WASNT SURE I POSTED IT RIGHT SO I POSTED IT 56 MORE TIMES.
    AUGUST 3 - I KEEP HEARING ABOUT THE WORLD WIDE WEB. I DONT KNOW SPIDERS GREW THAT LARGE.
    AUGUST 4 - THE ORACLE RESPONDED TO MY QUESTIONS TODAY. GEEZ IT WAS RUDE. I WAS SO ANGRY THAT I POSTED AN ANGRY MESSAGE ABOUT IT TO REC.HUMOR.ORACLE. I WASNT SURE IF I POSTED RIGHT SO I POSTED IT 22 MORE TIMES.
    AUGUST 5 - SOMEONE TOLD ME TO READ THE FAQ. GEEZ THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO USE PROFANITY.
    AUGUST 6 - SOMEONE ELSE TOLD ME TO STOP SHOUTING IN ALL MY MESSAGES. WHAT A STUPID JERK. IM NOT SHOUTING! IM NOT EVEN TALKING! JUST TYPING! HOW CAN THEY LET THESE RUDE JERKS GO ON THE INTERNET?
    August 7 - Why have a Caps Lock key if youre not suppose to use it? Its probably an extra feature that costs more money.
    August 8 - I just read this post called make money fast. Im so exited. im going to make lots of money. I followed his instructions and posted it to every newsgroup i could find.
    August 9 - I just made my signature file. Its only 6 pages long. i will have to work on it some more.
    August 10 - I just looked at a group called alt.aol.sucks. I read a few posts and I really believe that aol should be wiped off the f
    • I'm surprised your AOLer figured out how to use usenet so fast. I've never used it more than once or twice and I'd consider myself at least at the basic level of /. computer-savvy-ness...

    • Re:Blog of and AOL user (Score:5, Funny)

      by Izago909 ( 637084 ) <tauisgod@g m a i l . com> on Sunday July 13, 2003 @01:02PM (#6428902)
      I didn't know you met my grandparents. You should teach them the difference between their yahoo email name and aol screen name. Next time they get it mixed up I don't have to drive 20 miles to fix it and remind them that they aren't the same thing.

      My grandmother has about had it with AOL. She wants to know why everyone wants to enlarge her penis. My personal favorite was when I was helping her out and she got the pictorial advert for fisting transsexuals. They've got more than just mail. I've never heard grandma say a single swear in my entire life, until that day. Thanks AOL.
  • I mean lets face it, AOL was late to the bandwagon with this one. Especially with free sites like blogger [blogger.com], LiveJournal, and hell even Slashdot (link not provided).

    Plus anyone with a webhost that supports perl or php can setup their own personal blog or even a community of blogs.

    If you think that AOL will win because of "Exciting Software" to ease updates then you might want to take a look at this page [livejournal.com]. With livejournal being opensource I can't help but think that AOL won't take the time to re-invent t

  • This is long past due. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been pining for regular updates as to what goes on in the mind of an AOL user.

  • Once again, AOL is trying to implement a very popular feature that they didn't think of first, in the hopes it will become more popular. But will it work? There are over a million bloggers at LiveJournal, and Blogger.com is equally popular. How many more people can there be that want to blog and aren't on other sites?

  • Hmm (Score:3, Funny)

    by yeschat ( 471800 ) * on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:31PM (#6428739)
    AOL users know how to read and write? ;)
  • Oh Joy!

    Two things the world needs:

    1) Another Burger King
    2) Another Web Log

    Bonus points if they can patent something!

  • This is a great idea (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ispel ( 266661 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:41PM (#6428786)
    I know the consensus is that AOL sucks; mod me down if you must. Considering their contribution of a stupendous project like mozilla [slashdot.org] (funding, many full time Netscape developers, hosting, existing software, robust set of tools, all donated to make the best browser free software [gnu.org]), I hope any good ideas they come out with increases the # of their subscribers.

    A blogging feature not original, or particularly timely, but there is no time like the present. This is a great idea for AOL to add great value to their free AIM service (and AOL). I'd say most people have an intrinsic need to espouse their daily lives in a public setting. Current blogging offers require, at least, a smidgen of tech-know-how to find livejournal [livejournal.com], download a client, or whatever. With AOL, the user only needs to know what a "Journal" is and have AIM/AOL installed; I believe the service will be quite popular.

    • Re:This is a great idea (Score:4, Funny)

      by MyHair ( 589485 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @02:37PM (#6429339) Journal
      I'd say most people have an intrinsic need to espouse their daily lives in a public setting.

      Hmmm....

      Today I slept 'till noon. I woke up, masturbated while thinking of two high school girls, then got out of bed and turned off the alarm. I ate 4 bowls of Lucky Charms and read Slashdot, posting a few things hoping I'd get modded up. I don't think I'll wash my hair today because it's only been 20 hours since I got stitches in my forehead, and they said to wait 24 hours before getting it wet.

      No, I think you're wrong. I had no need to do that at all.
    • I agree, despite AOL's public persona being just about on M$ level, they have brought a lot of technology to the masses. Sometimes the results are poor and have no impact (AOL music streaming, You've Got Pictures, etc), but many times there are positive side effects to AOL's adoption of a technology.

      Think about it. We, the technologically advanced, had ICQ. AOL took the idea and tweaked it to their use. What was once a very tech heavy system now has a "lite" alternative. Many people who could never funct

    • Your point is well taken, but I just have a simple concern about how regularly will the AOL'ers blog.

      If most of the nerds can't keep their journals on slashdot, then most of the AOL'ers probably won't on AOL. I am not sure what the percentage of slashdotters who keep a journal is (can someone write a hack to do this?) but divide that by 5, and multiply by 34 million, and you get a guesstimate of the AOL journalers. I bet you that this is a pretty small number.

      It's just a guess, but it's still pretty

    • That's a common problem around here -- confusing AOL corporate (who can't be completely evil, or both Netscape and Mozilla would be long dead), AOL developers (who in my observation often make good stuff when left to their own devices; AIM is a *nice* little app), and AOL users (the Average Joes that slashdotters so love to deprecate).

      I don't use AOL for online access, but I do use AIM, hence I wonder: if this is AIM-based, will it work for anyone who has an AIM screen name?

    • I'd say most people have an intrinsic need to espouse their daily lives in a public setting.

      Speaking from the perspective of middle age, I've observed that particular behaviour belongs mostly to the young: it's one of the perfectly normal ways that young people establish themselves as independent individuals, a sort of "staking my territory" by informing the world "this is who I am". It says "Listen to me, I'm an individual and I count."

      In the pre-blog era, the same thing was accomplished by ongoing jou

  • Because I still have friends running 6.0, 7.0, and I switched to 8.0 about nine months ago.

    Far too many people have been bitten by the "AOL Upgrade Bug" to go running out buying more memory, whatever, just so they can upgrade now! Now! Now!

    If this is a 9.0ism, I don't think you'll see anybody using it successfully until 2004 or 2005.

  • YAY! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Dark Lord Seth ( 584963 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @12:50PM (#6428838) Journal

    As if we didn't have enough web logs already! (I refuse to use that retarded buzzword) Now we can all enjoy the daily adventures of random 14 year old American girls loosing their virginity to a random 24 year old American guy and then compare their blogs together! Actually, we could make a nice betting game based on that, building a few scripts that hunt for tell-tale signs about upcoming relationships... ("OMG im so in luv LOL i cant w8 2 see him!!!112" & "Hey, my 14 year old cousin is starting to get breasts!" (for the redneck version of the show))

    Then we can make a Big Brother-esque show out of it! People can bet on what will happen! Will he screw her? Will she get pregnant? Or are they actually smart enough to use protection? Who will enjoy it most? All those bets can make a fortune and with the endless supply of ignorance and stupidity delivered on the internet (courtsey of the AOL userbase) we wont run out of subjects before the sun expands and consumes the earth!

    Coming up next: IRC Deathmatch. Two horny people, one modified ircd, no fucking dignity! Is 16 year old Suzy really the virgin from Tampa she claims to be? Does 17 year old Kindra from Portland really have a D cup? Bet on these uncertainties and watch out as we send a large, aggresives and violent camera crew to meet them all a few days after!

    • I'll bet my bag of chips that FOX already has something exactly like that in the works..."Temptation Internet" or "Wild on Blogs"

    • Re:YAY! (Score:2, Funny)

      by shnarez ( 541132 )

      Liar. :)

      enough web logs already! (I refuse to use that retarded buzzword)

      And on the next line:

      ...compare their
      blogs together!

      (Emphasis mine).

    • wow, you refuse to use the retarded buzzword.

      web log?

      a web log logs the accesses of my website tyvm

      or, its a what a spider does when it shits

  • heh (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MousePotato ( 124958 )
    so aol has discovered the blog...bfd.

    oh wait, I can think of a few reasons why this is actually cool. First, aparently a good chunk of thier users thing that aol is the internet. While it may have had that appearance in the beginning they are learning how to use the web. Not bad.

    Second, it would be nice if all those folks could have a blog so they can spew whatever at whomever is listening. Again, not great but not bad.

    Third, this might actually be the beginning of the end for all of those hideous person

  • Wasn't Time Warner supposed to provide content??? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Rahga ( 13479 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @01:01PM (#6428896) Journal
    With the personal value and investment in e-mail addresses dropping thanks to spam, I suppose AOL needed something that will keep subscribers from jumping ship.

    I've got to wonder, however, what the EULA on this thing is going to look like.... especially if the try to pull a geocities "all your content are belong to us" clause. And what will happen someday when an popular AOL blogger decides to complain about AOL's service?

  • They've had it in beta test (Score:4, Funny)

    by xintegerx ( 557455 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @01:01PM (#6428897) Homepage
    Journal Entry #1
    February 1st, 2003 02:40:11PM PST

    Woot! I just got this sweet new job. Finally, no longer uenmployed! :) I heard it's gonna be a long winter. :/ This JOURNAL service is awesome!

    ~Dave

    Journal Entry #200
    February 30th, 2003 17:55:16PM PST

    Just wanted to say... happy 200th post to myself! :) I am the best employee, my company said! I heard I'm getting a bonus. The weather looks like it will improve... Until next time!

    ~Dave

    Journal Entry #214
    March 2nd, 2003 12:00:04PM PST

    GOOD NEWS! that AOL just e-mailed me. My journal was selected to be automatically published in AOL Advertising when the service is launched in the summer. !!! I'm so excited! TTYL, I gotta oil the plants, water my hose.

    Things couldn't be better! I'm so strung I'll probably end up pressing SUBMIT 1,000 times! :)

    ~Dave

    Journal Entry #2,340
    March 2nd, 2003 12:04:34PM PST

    OMG! Haha Look that. Got it to 2,000 in four minutes. I'll try 10,000 and then submit bug report. OK anyway, oil the plants, water my hose.

    ~Dave

    Journal Entry #11,699
    July 11th, 2003 15:22:56PM PST

    It has been hell. The outfall shows no signs of ceasing in the near future. I am writing this from beneath the downpour. This could be my final entry. I don't know how much longer I can cope. I am conserving the battery as much as I can. I'm out.

    ~Dave

    Journal Entry #11,700
    July 12th, 2003 00:26:32PM PST

    Still holding in there. I thought checking off "mail a copy of each journal entry to me" would be in e-mail form. How I was wrong. My hand is slowly immobolized. My BACK is hurting (the discs are a pain in the ass.)

    ~Dave

    Journal Entry #11,725
    July 12th, 2003 14:20:20PM PST

    DAMMIT! Can't anybody see me type? HEELP!!

    Journal Entry #11,740
    July 13th, 2003 23:59:44PM PST

    I'm losiong cohersion. The postman visited today. They just won't stop. Turn on the light! Cant.. handle... the weigh.......

    --
    [End of Flash Presentation]
    Thank you for browsing a sample journal entry!

    Sign up now, and we will automatically mail you hard copies of each entry directly to your house! As a bonus, we will include a couple of AOL 9.0 MEMBERSHIP DISKS for EACH journal entry, to give out to your new online friends!. (Beta testers received 5+ disks in each packet.)

    Press continue to learn more!
    (C) Copyright 2003 AOL Time Warner. This web site may not be...
  • Hmm yes but the non AOL bogs NYTimes reads :)

    Well at least mine :)

    http://www.freeroller.net/page/shareme/Weblog

    The next Ester Dyson will not be found on AOL blogs..

  • AOL BLogs? (Score:4, Funny)

    by soulsteal ( 104635 ) <soulsteal@EINSTE ... minus physicist> on Sunday July 13, 2003 @01:41PM (#6429094) Homepage
    Wouldn't AOL blogs be one person posting what they did for the day and everyone else posting "Me too!" ?
  • Hope their service will support things like RSS, popular in blogging.

  • This is AOL... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Peterus7 ( 607982 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @02:05PM (#6429193) Homepage Journal
    Get the same internet that you would normally get for a lot cheaper with now the same functions that normal internet users take for granted! Pretend you know what you're doing! Pretend you're hip on the wired (And be called a 12 year old AOLer)! AOL can help(you lose all self confidence as people laugh at your slow bandwidth and primitive net skills, you n00b)!

    Yep. Pretty much AOL makes things that are available to normal internet users available in a stupified form for stupified users. Or old people. At a higher price and a lesser quality too.

    What next? A P2P service that allows you to exchange .midis? A MMORPG that's 2d and the only characters are different colors of the little AOL guy? Instead of having normal movie trailers, having the .mp3 trace of the trailers? I pity da foo who is stuck with AOL... And yet sometimes it's the only provider... And that makes me sad.

    I mean, if AOL isn't bordering on a (wired) human rights abuse in itself, I don't know what is.

  • AOLers and bloggers at the same time. Sounds like a horrible chimera-like beast.

  • Why all the elitism about the word 'blog'? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FunWithHeadlines ( 644929 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @02:31PM (#6429309) Homepage
    Lots of comments slamming 'blog' around here: "It's a diary!", "It's a journal!", "Why make a new word for an old idea?"

    Well, because it is a new idea. Diaries were kept for private viewing, a few notable exceptions notwithstanding. The idea of being able to post your "diary" globally is certainly empowering. Yeah, yeah, we're /. and we look down on anyone who cannot do HTML. Fine, be elitist, but most of the world is not, and never will be, programmers, or even scripters. And blogging software has given the rest of the world a simple tool that enables them to do what we have been able to do for years.

    Blogs are more than the sum of their parts, furthermore. It's not just that these "diaries" are online. The blog phenomenom is based on the mutual linking that goes on. It's a community -- that hardly describes a diary or a journal -- of users connecting to each other. Does that sound familiar? Sure, it's the promise of the web, only now accessible to a lot more people.

    Finally blogs are not just "diaries." For example, I have my web site [funwithheadlines.net] where I have fun with the wording of headlines. In order to see how the power of blogging works, I recently created a blog of my site [weblogs.com] in order to see if the connectivity of the blog community would increase awareness. I'm playing with the blog phenemenon, in other words. Yet there is nothing about me at my blog, no diary entries, nothing. It's all about the humor.

    Blogging is about the community, not just a diary.

  • Yeah, cause the internet needs MORE blogs, riiiight.
  • No thanks.

    It's already hard to understand some people over the phone, without MP3 encoding potentially making that even worse (with the number of dialup customers AOL still has, I don't see them using a decent bitrate just yet). This isn't counting nasal voices if someone happens to be sick.

    Typed blog updates, on the other hand, are a lot easier to understand (even with a ton of typos), are possible to skim through to get a general idea, etc. You also bypass all of the "um"s and "uh"s that go with the

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