Now THAT's a Product Review

From: [email protected]: [Web Informant] 10 August 2006: AOLfree: You've Got ProblemsDate: August 10, 2006 1:48:55 PM GMT+02:00To: [email protected] Informant 10 August 2006: AOLfree: You've Got ProblemsI haven't run AOL software since about the time in the late 1990s when Marshall Rose and I were writing our book on Internet Messaging together. We wanted to call the book "You've Got Mail" but that is a story for another day. So when AOL announced last week that they were migrating to a free service for those of us that didn't need their dialup connections any more (dialup? Who uses dialup?) I had to try it out.Boy, did I enter the wayback machine, Mr. Peabody. Before I knew what was going on, my hard disk had filled up with AOL bloatware. I count the following programs now installed care of Time Warner:AOL Coach, AOL Connection Services, AOL Deskbar, AOL SpywareProtector, AOL IE Toolbar, AOL You've Got Pictures screensaver, Real'sPlayer, QuickTime, and AOL Computer Check Up. Not to mention the AOL Uninstaller, which only uninstalls one of the above programs. As my friend Barry Gerber would say, who designed this crap?The AOLfree version faithfully replicates the AOL paid experience: youhave AOL IM, a browser to AOL's portal (when was the last time youneeded to check that page?), and of course, AOL email (if you can finda series of characters and numbers that no one else has alreadygrabbed). But why would anyone want to do this? The days of a "walled garden" – as AOL once called its portal – are long over, and most people use whatever email and browser they want these days.However, there are a couple of things that it doesn't do, things thatparents should know. One of the most useful things of a real AOLaccount was the ability to set children's access to content and howthey would use their IM and email accounts. While most teens thesedays know more than parents and how to get around these blocks, the pre-teen set can benefit from these controls. The AOLfree universe is completely free of parental controls.But if you are still using AOL and don't have youngsters around, youwant to get off the AOL bus now. This is why their phone lines arebeing clogged with users who want out of their monthly AOL tax ontheir Internet access. BTW, the number to call is 1-888-265-8008 and operators are standing by 24/7. I will save you the trouble of looking it up on AOL.com, which isn't the easiest thing to find. And don't get me started on how much of a maze AOLhelp online is. There are so many blind alleys on their Web site that any noob trying to figure this out isn't going to get very far. Clearly, they are working on their site. (When I went under AOLhelp, account questions, price plans AOL offers; I got "We're sorry, currently there are no available documents for this section." Oops.)Yes, there are some semi-useful tools, such as AOL Computer Check Up, which scans and attempts to fix your hard disk for things that arewrong with it, but there are better programs around for free,including PCPitStop.com from my friend Dave Methvin. And there is itsSpyware blocker, but after installing all these other AOL thingies Iam not sure that I can find the blocker among all my desktop clutteranymore. And why, pray tell, do I need both Real and QuickTime players on my machine? Certainly, one would be enough to play all that video content that AOL now is streaming at me, including the intro video with the cute blonde showing me what the software does, which is almost worth the entire hassle of installing and uninstalling AOLfree.No, this is one piece of freeware that you get exactly what you payfor: a mish-mash of second-rate software, all so that you can have a"vanity" AOL email address to indicate to the rest of the world thatyou continue to be a clueless noob. Glenn Fleishman writes equallyharsh language in this week's Tidbits.com newsletter:AOL's software still stinks. AOL's email filtering is highly erratic.Any of us who run mailing lists are familiar with suddenly having allof our double opt-in, fully approved AOL users bounce our email forsome obscure reason that's impossible to address directly with AOL.AOLfree is just another in piece of their software that continues toannoy me. I wrote a short review of their latest AIM Pro IM client forComputerworld that you can read here:http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9002057When I wrote that piece I got a few emails from people within AOL that wanted to talk to me. They didn't provide phone numbers, and I assumed they were product managers so I emailed them back, saying I welcome a dialog. Never heard another peep out of them. Perhaps they didn't receive my message – but this is just another indication of how hard it is to deal with the company. I think we can say that the merger with Time Warner has been successful at reverse cherry-picking the aspects of two dysfunctional corporate cultures and creating a worst-of-breed new media company.AOL has done a terrific job of getting noobs on the Net, and providingan IM service for teens that is now being used by many businesses. But their software efforts suffer from coming from a large corporationthat has lost its will to be an innovator. There isn't any reason touse AOLfree. If you still have AOL.com as your domain, it is time toconsider other alternatives, like Google, Earthlink, and hundreds ofother places that will do a better job._______________________________________________David StromSt. Louis MO310 857 6867Web Informant is (r) registered trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.ISSN #1524-6353 registered with U.S. Library of CongressEntire contents copyright 2006 by David Strom, Inc.Subscribe/unsubscribe via the Web at:http://lists.avolio.com/mailman/listinfo/informantTired of reading these in email? Go to my blog and sign up for the RSS feed at:feed://strominator.com/feed/