page_title: AOL
section_title: Criticism
hierarchical_section_title: AOL / Criticism
caption_attribution_description: English: A collection of AOL CDs send to an student dormitory (which had 100 Mbit/s uplink to the university in every appartment) in Aachen, Germany.
context_page_description: AOL is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by Verizon Media.
  The service traces its history to an online service known as PlayNET. PlayNET licensed their software to Quantum Link, who went online in November 1985. A new IBM PC client launched in 1988, eventually renamed as America Online in 1989. AOL grew to become the largest online service, displacing established players like CompuServe and The Source. By 1995, AOL had about three million active users.
  AOL was one of the early pioneers of the Internet in the mid-1990s, and the most recognized brand on the web in the United States. It originally provided a dial-up service to millions of Americans, as well as providing a web portal, e-mail, instant messaging and later a web browser following its purchase of Netscape. In 2001, at the height of its popularity, it purchased the media conglomerate Time Warner in the largest merger in U.S. history. AOL rapidly declined thereafter, partly due to the decline of dial-up and rise of broadband. AOL was eventually spun off from Time Warner in 2009, with Tim Armstrong appointed the new CEO.
context_section_description: In its earlier incarnation as a "walled garden" community and service provider, AOL received criticism for its community policies, terms of service, and customer service. Prior to 2006, AOL was known for its direct mailing of CD-ROMs and 3.5-inch floppy disks containing its software. The disks were distributed in large numbers; at one point, half of the CDs manufactured worldwide had AOL logos on them. The marketing tactic was criticized for its environmental cost, and AOL CDs were recognized as PC World's most annoying tech product.
caption: AOL CDs sent to a student dormitory in Germany, 2002
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