Goodbye AOL Journals, Hello Blogger!

AOL Journals has finally called it quits after 5 years. Through the years it went through a few rough spots, but managed to create a small dedicated user base whom enjoyed networking with their peers. On October 31st, 2008, AOL Journals will cease to exist. Leaving many of it’s dedicated following frustrated over it’s demise.

Migrate to Blogger

The next step for AOL Journals users is to migrate their account to Blogger. Interestingly, AOL has teamed up with Google to create a transfer tool to ease the process for you. Though, after you migrate your blog, I recommend exporting it to another platfom. If you need help on the import process, visit Blogger Help AOL Import.

A Brief History

When AOL Journals initially launched, it felt as though it was a replacement for AOL Hometown. AOL Hometown was a basic website generator, but was very limited, and used an overly annoying Java script application to run it. Instead of using AOL Hometown to describe oneself, AOL Journals was meant to serve as a blogging outlet for all members. AOL Journals could not manage gain much popularity among the main user base. This could be because it due to lack of advertising, for one there were no AOL Journals tabs in AOL Profiles, one of the highly viewed features on AOL.

To generate some buzz, The The Magic Smoke began as a blog that would feature other bloggers and provide up to date information regarding features, bugs, and outages. This blog expanded further  on community development, and lead to the creation of CoMET, which served as a guide for new and old AOL members.

Even AOL’s own developers joined the AOL Journals platform, where we could get a behind the scenes look on what to expect. Among the years AOL Jounals added some new features including tagging support, RSS feeds, and integration of “whitelisted” embeddable content such as Flickr slideshows.

Limited Features: A Brief History Part 2

Even with such features AOL Journals just could not gain a large grasp on AOL members. Sure many started their own journal, but abandoned it usually after the first post. The lack of customization was a huge deterrence. Though some customization through CSS was planned, it never really saw the light of day. Later on,  even AOL’s own development and community teams moved outside of AOL Journals and started their own websites. After AOL acquired BlogSmith, all major blogs began utilizing this platform.

Whats next in store for AOL?

Well all I can really speculate is Bebo. AOL did acquire them and we have yet to see what they are planning to do with it. We do know they will integrate AIM Profiles in some form. In addition, Bebo also has its own blogging platform. 

When AOL splits, Where do we end up?

The Great Divide

Time Warner plans to split AOL into two factions, an advertisement unit and a dial-up unit. The plan will be to sell off each unit to potential buyers.

Dial-up users do not make up the majority on AOL so giving them away won’t be such a big deal. Plus this means that AOL will finally have no use for India call centers, although they still might work as online tech support.

The advertising unit also known as Platform A, accounts for the whole AOL community, but mainly focuses on Ad.com. Platform A consists of tons of websites and brands all across the internet. Its a very lucrative spot to potential buyers as they will have ad spots in tons of areas including the massive AIM user base.

I am a Dial-up User, Where do I go?

Earthlink has been in talks to take over dial-up subscribers. I believe dial-up users will be switched over to an entirely new Earthlink email address, Their AOL account will automatically be switched over to free and they will be encouraged to use both emails. This is just purely speculation.

I am a Broadband User, Where do I go?

As for the advertisement unit, it looks like we’ll end up joining Microsoft or Yahoo, or hopefully someone else who wants to step up to the plate.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

The most interesting part of this merger is the drama between each of the major companies. Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are battling it out to gain the largest footprint over internet advertisement revenue. If AOL merges with Yahoo, Microsoft gets upset. If AOL merges with Microsoft, Google gets upset. Added to this problem includes the recent deal Yahoo and Google are making to share advertisement plans. Microsoft isn’t so happy about that either and wants the decision blocked. I’m hoping neither of these companies buy AOL. As you can see its already a tangled mess. Joining forces with AOL will only complicate matters.

If Microsoft or Yahoo does indeed buy AOL, interoperability will finally be on the table. Whoever buys AOL will now have to integrate all AOL screennames together with the buyer’s IM service. For the first time we may finally have AIM with the ability to add Microsoft and Yahoo subscribers to the buddy list. I know many have have been clamoring for that.

The other great feature is advertisement revenue. Now Yahoo or Microsoft will have an even larger audience to host advertisements, including non-AOL owned websites that Ad.com serves.

The Buzz Around the Internets

There seems to be no agreement as to who should buy AOL. One thought is that If Microsoft buys AOL, it could allow Yahoo to prove themselves to investors that they can run independent of Microsoft. Another speculates that AOL won’t be able to save the Microsoft brand. We may find ourselves watching the same thing happen years from now when Microsoft announces it will try to sell off AOL.

During this battle, users are always the victims. If I were to choose a company that could attempt to save the AOL community to bring them back together, I would choose Yahoo. Yahoo has proven its expertise in this aspect with sites such as Yahoo Groups and Yahoo Answers.

What do you think will happen to AOL?

Post a comment on your ideas and thoughts as to what might happen to AOL. You’ll have to wait until 2009 its announced what plans AOL will be forced to make.

AIM Users Furious over Ads in Buddy Info

As Randy Falco, CEO of AOL, gets closer to his dream of making AOL the most profitable advertising network, users were treated with a brand new ad inside the buddy info. These ads now take up a considerable amount of space at the bottom of the buddy info. The window is now stuck at a much larger width than before

This did not set off well with the AIM userbase, as there have been complaints about this new ad system:

“THANK YOU PEOPLE FOR UNDERSTANDING HOW ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS THIS IS!!!  I HATE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO THE BUDDY INFO BOX, I CAN’T STAND IT!! ITS ANNOYING AND POINTLESS AND MAKES THE BUDDY INFO LOOK LIKES ITS NOT ABOUT BUDDY INFO AT ALL” ~DanceStar

“EPIC FAIL FOR AIM.” ~nj

“AIM MANAGEMENT NEEDS TO WAKE UP” ~a concerned mother

” SUCH A SMALL CHANGE AND I WANNA RIP MY EYES OUT >> GET RID OF THE ADS !” ~Robby

“Your actually doing negative advertising for these companies.  SCREW VERIZON…the first company to buy the ad.  I make a point to never buy any product of people you advertise for.  STOP ALREADY.” ~jimmy

As you can see from all those CAPS LOCKS, people are enraged over this! I did notice that there was not much complaints against the text ads AOL placed in the buddy info, maybe they should reconsider implementing that instead.

In other news, AIM has added more integration with AIM profiles by adding a “Profile Buddies” tab in the Buddy Info.

Also Note AimAdHack now removes these Ads.

Deleting an AIM or AOL Screen Name Account

Many people ask if its possible to cancel or remove your AIM or AOL screen name and account.

Depending on which account you have, you may or may not be able to completely cancel your account

If you have..

• A Free AIM Account: You MIGHT be able to cancel.
• A Free AOL Account: You WILL be able to cancel.
• A Paid AOL Account: You WILL be able to cancel.

Cancelling your Paid AOL Screen Name

• Head over to Cancel AOL
• Look for “Cancel My Billing” on the right sidebar
• Press Continue.

Cancelling your Free AOL Screen Name

• Head over to Cancel AOL
  
• On the sidebar, click on “5.How do I cancel my free member account” 
• In the message box that pops up click the blue link that says “here”
• Click on Cancel on the next page.
• Be sure to checkmark “…you do not want your account to be converted to free“
• Alternatively download the AOL Cancellation Form (mirror) and follow it’s instructions.
• You can mail the form to:
  AOL LLC, PO Box 65100 Sterling, VA 20165-8800

New method of Cancelling your AIM screen name

We are currently testing a new method of cancelling your AIM screen name. According to commenter Mike, there is a website which details instructions on terminating your AOL account, it seems this might also apply to AIM screen names. Head over to AOL Termination UK and follow the instructions there. If you sent them an email and can not login to your AIM account after five days of waiting, post back in the comments section.

Fake “Cancelling” your Aim Screen Name

• Open AIM 6
• Click Aim then Sign Out (If your Online)
• Click on a Screen Name
• Uncheck Remember Me
• Uncheck Remember Password
• Press Delete On your Screen Name

For Aim Users only: If you followed the first step, your screen name will now be removed from Aim’s drop down list. However, there are few important things you should remember. Screen names will eventually become deactivated due to inactivity. This means you should never log into the screen name at all. This includes checking Email and posting on AOL’s message boards. Each time you sign on, you initially reset the clock for the screen name to become deactivated.

Another way to getting your AIM Screen Name deactivated is a bit more nefarious as it requires you to do a Terms of Service violation. Essentially once you have done a Terms of Service violation your account will most likely become suspended and nobody will ever be able to sign on or use it again. This is until AOL dumps the inactivated and suspended screen names, which can take years before its placed back into rotation. Most of the time this never happens for suspended screen names.

AOL develops another new AIM Client For Mac

This new client plays catch up to features already existing on Windows. It’s built with AIMCC SDK, and now allows support for plugins (previously a Windows exclusive feature). There seems to be a little discussion about why should AOL develop a new Mac client when iChat does everything. From all the people who post on message boards, there’s still quite a few people who did not know that iChat could use the AIM network. Others have been begging for AOL for years to develop a new Mac application. 

Some feel that AOL has abandoned Macs and left them outside in the cold to fend for themselves. It’s not that they didn’t have alternatives to choose from, there’s still Adium which has been serving the Mac community very well. However, with third party programs, you ultimately realize certain features will never be available to you and you’ll just have to live with it. So with all that in mind, pick the software you feel most comfortable with. You don’t need to worry about what so & so company is making. You can try it out by Downloading it here!