Back in the day when I was but a wee lad, my parents used to lease an internet connection through America Online. Those words still make me cringe today. I would think the various unethical consumer abuses and all out terrible service would be enough to put AOL under, but I guess the family-friendly con artists have more resilience than I would have initially guessed.
My first qualm with AOL stems from what seems to be its inferiority complex. As soon as you install it it hijacks your browser, if I remember correctly by replacing registry values in Windows machines to make the browser title say “Brought to you by America Online.” Honestly its been a while since I've used windows and a much longer while since I've used AOL, but thats how I remember it at least. I don't understand why they have to attach their name to your browser if they have nothing to do with it. They should lease you an IP address like a good little ISP and call it a day.
Then you take the inferiority complex and mix it with lies and deception. AOL claims to have built in spam control, which it does, but now allows companies sending spam mail to pay to allow the mail to be passed through filters as certified mail. When an online petition formed trying to stop this policy, AOL blocked all emails containing the web address of the online petition. When called out on it, they called the phenomenon a glitch. I encourage you to read the whole story here http://news.cnet.com/AOL-charged-with-blocking-opponents-e-mail/2100-1030_3-6061089.html.
On top of all of these ethical violations and terrible customer abuse (I encourage you to follow the link in the first paragraph), AOL just provides crappy service. The only reason people choose AOL as a service is because parents who don't know much about the internet are captivated by the words “parental controls.” I'm sure if it weren't for AOL leeching off the over concerned portion of the population ignorant to other ISPs, AOL would be out of business. At least I think it should be.
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