For all of its then-glitzy graphics and specialty content, it was something very simple that kept subscribers paying AOL's hourly rates.
People like to talk to each other.
The power of online chat in which people type text messages to each other via computers is now at the centre of a fascinating game of cat and rat between AOL and Microsoft. It's a wonderful battle of wills, a situation in which roles are reversed and a classic example of how the Internet really does change everything. First, some history is in order. For years, America Online has offered its users the ability to send instant messages to one another. You know a technological achievement is a hit when its acronym becomes a verb.