A/S/L?

15/F/Nearby

U?

16/F/Cali

hey bby wana trade pix

What kept AOL from innovating and keeping with the times?

Big egos.

Tim Armstrong, our CEO, is famous for only wanting to do things "his way." For example, he came up with a local news "microsite" concept called Patch. It was conceptualized before he came to AOL, and he then sold it to AOL.

One editor, a few reporters, and ad salesmen for each large city across the U.S., with the idea that you'd have "hyper local" news in your area.

Problem is, it's impossible to sell ads for such a small site and drive a profit when you're trying to pay 3-5 people a living wage. So they have to "consolidate Patch sites" and lay employees off to reduce costs.

The best part? Some AOLers came up with the same idea, pre-Tim, that relied on feeds to ingest the news - so local employees were not required. It was 2 weeks away from being pushed live, and Tim came in and said "no thanks, we'll do Patch instead" and the project was shelved.

How about Aol was one of the fast growing internet stocks in 2013 and returned to profits for the first time in 8 years. He realized that Patch was a poor investment and has since sold it off which then immediately made the stock jump again. Aol is trading at over $50 a share is a remarkable increase given it was at $9 two years ago.

Well, Patch was truly just re-thought and sold off. It's been frustrating to see that venture fail over my entire time with the company.

I'm not saying the company as a whole is not doing better than they were since the Time Warner merger, I'm just saying upper management is difficult to work with and the culture kinda sucks because of it.

Did you have any interaction with Leonsis?

Nope. But we have a building named after him, which I think is kind of cheesy.

Why do my parents still use your email? What spell have you put on them?

Eh, it's a free service and some people don't want the hassle of changing addresses.

If they're still paying a monthly fee, call and cancel that ish. You can keep your email address for free even if you cancel the paid subscription.

I'd just like to let you know that I am one of the few people still using my old AOL mail account (as my personal, not professional, email anyway, I use Gmail for that), and I like it. It doesn't say 'You've got mail!' anymore though, and I've never bothered trying to figure out how to correct that. There's probably not many people under 60 still using AOL mail, but we're out there (I assume).

:thumbup:

I have no idea why it wouldn't make the noise - I figured it was still out there in some preference pane.

Be honest: How many 'Free Trial' disks do you have in your house right now?

Absolutely none.

But our conference room tables are slabs of concrete with crushed CDs in them. Pretty cool, actually.

picture?

Yep

Is AOL aware of the image problem they have?

Very. And they have a bunch of older folks trying to make the company appeal to the 18-25 crowd, which seems ironic to me.

Also, we have this guy as a "digital prophet" who I guess goes around to other companies and tells them we're awesome. He gives presentations to employees about the cool future of the web and how to make it more awesome - and then we all go back to doing the same old stuff we've done for years.

He looks insane. His video is just as stupid. No wonder why AOL is fucked.

...yeahhh.

In the exact same time it took his picture to load I decided I hate your digital prophet.

He's not for everyone, that's for damn sure.

I've sat through his presentation, and really, it's good. I just don't see how he's benefiting AOL the brand/company.

He's not.

It seems AOL has no idea what the fuck they're doing. So that guy basically, represents AOL, but tells other companies whats new and innovative? And tags a line about how AOL is awesome?

AOL... The fuck are you doing?

Well, AOL does have an idea of what they're doing. They're turning a profit. But they have an issue of how the public perceives them, and I don't think Shingy is helping that image. Maybe he does help make connections between AOL and other companies - but I can't say for sure.

Can you post a pic of the disk/concrete tables you've mentioned? They sound pretty nifty, couldn't find anything like it on google

Just posted it here.

That's awesome looking! Thanks for the speedy reply!

Fo' sho. I think the tables are tremendously cool - part looks, part history. If I could have a coffee table like that, I definitely would.

What version is AOHell these days?

I think the client software is on 9.7 now. Although, I haven't used it since I was, oh, 11 or so.

What about other employees? Isn't this kind of... fucked up (for lack of a better word)? I mean, if employees don't use it doesn't that say something about the future of the company? It should be something you want to use.

The future of the company hasn't been reliant on the client software for many, many years. The client is just one way of accessing a "welcome screen" alongside email, chat, and the "real internet" if you so choose.

How Does AOL explain how it went from "somewhat" household commodity, to something we never see?

How Does AOL plan to change that?

I think the higher-ups rode the dial-up wave for too long and stifled innovation.

There are some really good people here with really good ideas, but I still see upper management squeezing the life out of things until it's too late for these new/awesome/cool ideas to succeed.

Do you think AOL will be able to innovate and somehow climb back atop the tech industry?

I think they have a lot of good people with very good ideas and a lot of drive. That said, I think upper management needs to deflate their egos and pick one strategy for the company and stick with it.

If things keep going as they are (with projects dragged on and on, and leadership/strategy changing every six months) then no, I don't see them doing better in the long run.

What do you think has kept their stock rallying? They're surprisingly still gaining.

Multi-part answer.

They have a very strong editorial base. Sites like Engadget, Autoblog, Moviefone, and The Huffington Post are all ours. We put out a ton of quality content every day.

AOL also created/owns an advertising platform (ad.com) that drives a lot of revenue.

We're second-highest in monetized video behind YouTube - so, ads before videos make money - with the AOLOn video platform.

There are a lot of strong "wins" within the company, and ^{^} all of that is a large contributor to stock and public image. But I think the biggest issue that we face, as a company, is the public image that "AOL is dial-up and irrelevant unless I'm an old coot"

There's been a pretty overwhelmingly negative response to the Huffington Post's direction since the merger though hasn't there?

HuffPost has actually done very well since 2011 when the merger took place. They're expanding at a very fast pace. There was some initial confusion about how AOL Editorial would work with HuffPost (or not) as things came together. At this point, the two ventures are basically separate and focus on different ways of presenting news and journalism - HuffPost covers the more quick, buzzy news and articles, and AOL Editorial strives for a more in-depth, less tabloid-y presentation of content.

HuffPost is definitely very left-leaning and they're not ashamed of it. But I wouldn't say the general reaction to the brand is "overwhelmingly negative." People just have an opinion, good or not, and I think that's a good thing because it means the brand is recognized.

Do you use the AOL browser or does that not exist anymore (seriously, I don't know if that exists or not)?

I use Firefox for work stuff and Chrome for personal stuff.

Does a lot of the company use Firefox or Chrome?

I think it's skewed toward Firefox - we have some internal tools that are designed to work best in FF.

Just want to pass on a big thank you on behalf of my Dad.

He signed up for a 1000 hour free trial way back when, and is still with you to this day. You upgraded the dial up to wireless broad band about five years ago* and its awesome! Amazing speed (Eats up Eve online which i assume is impressive...), seemingly unlimited data and its costing him about two thirds less than any other big supplier.

So yeah, cheers!

Edit: *At a lower price!

Well hey, tell him I'm glad he's happy with it!

(Also, I have nothing to do with subscription services.)

I also work for AOL.

Yo.

bro-nod

Whassup.

Do you have any idea on the numbers of CDs you guys produced/shipped out? I have to imagine it's an astronomical amount. I realize you didn't work there in the hayday of AOL cds.

What is the company culture like? Is it cutthroat, or a good team environment?

I dunno, millions? They were everywhere back in the day. I do remember AOL floppy disks, before they made it to CDs.

Culture here is interesting. It's very laid-back - I have worn jeans to work every day I've worked here. Jeans and a button-down/sweater/polo shirt is the norm, and you'll see developers and other less-front-facing people wearing camo shorts and flip-flops.

Some departments are OK with their staff working from home when necessary, coming in at 9 and leaving at 4:30 or 5. Others are the polar opposite. There's one VP (who I can't stand) who considers 8:30-5:30 "the absolute minimum" and more or less considers you a slacker if you only work those hours. I've had friends in that department who came in at 8 and stayed til 6 with no work to do, just to look good, which I think is bullshit. Fortunately, everywhere I've been within the company has the "get it done by deadline, when/where/how is up to you" mantra.

We have happy hours about once a month (yay, free food and kegs) and up until this year, the Christmas parties were swanky. This year was obviously a budget crunch.

I wouldn't say there's a cutthroat environment between employees - there is a big emphasis on succeeding (or failing) as a team. But layoffs are frequent - every 3 months almost guaranteed - which makes it hard to get enthusiastic about going to work a lot of the time.

Following up on your layoff question -

What departments tend to get hit the worst with layoffs? Do programmers tend to avoid those layoffs, or are they just as vulnerable as anyone else?

The "services" department is rife with asshole management, poor leadership, and tons of layoffs. The developers/programmers seem to be more valued, primarily because we are constantly lacking in dev resources - so anyone worth their salt will be kept, maybe moved to a different department if they are needed more elsewhere.

How many free hours did you accrue over the years of working there?

None. But the benefits are pretty decent.

Can we please make fun of David "digital prophet" Shingy some more

DatHair

I work in digital marketing and I've been going through his videos trying to make sense of what he's saying. He uses a bunch of buzz words and ideas that is not new or revolutionary. I think he's trying really hard to be a .com-er, digital, guru/renaissance man. Seriously he's full of shit. We need to organize something to troll this man.

Yeah, the presentation was definitely very "in your face" and flashy. I recall thinking how the ideas were great, but "why haven't we been doing this already as it is?"

Winamp. What's the deal, man?

Dude, I really don't know. That announcement really surprised me. I know Winamp didn't hold a ton of market share in the U.S., but overseas they were pretty popular. Always seemed like they were busy doing good things when I walked by.

What is the feature of AOL "All in software" that you love more and what that you hate more?

Hrm, not sure entirely what you're asking but I'll give it a shot.

I still really like AIM as a chat protocol - it works well and is pretty reliable.

I frickin' hate the fact that AOL employees use the same AIM client as consumers, which is smothered with ads. I work here, why should I see obnoxious ads? So, I use Trillian instead. My subtle way of sticking it to the man.

Oh man, Trillian, I actually paid for that program like ten years ago.

They've been slacking on their Mac development lately. Kind of a bummer...

Is there only lasting thing AOL.com? And how many of your users are 60+

Here's my answer about what's lasting, it's not just AOL.com although there is a huge push to continually re-invent and update and innovate the homepage.

Our biggest user base is actually something like 35-50 year olds. We do have a good chunk of older folks who use us because that's what they learned at age 40 or 50 back in the dial-up days, but we are not exclusively "old people friendly" if that makes sense.

Obviously, the hardest nut to crack is the 18-25 market. We're not hip enough yet.

A lot of large company mass-layoffs are rife with favoritism from management, have the layoff phases you've made it through been fair and performance based are were they just sweeping "drop 143 from the cd spam department" kind of deals?

It seems like every department gets tasked with eliminating 10% or whatever amount, each time. So, a lot of the time, people with the least amount of experience get sacked. Or, they'll tell your whole project that things are hunky-dory and promptly lay off 50% of the team the following week.

[deleted]

I... have no theories. Definitely something to Google later.

I supposed you weren't around for the Time Warner acquisition. Any idea why AOL, an internet company, couldn't figure out how to make something out of the acquisition of a cable TV company? When it happened I thought "OK, if they play this right they'll be offering broadband internet over Time Warner's lines and using Time Warner's video catalog to revolutionize internet video". As we now know, none of that happened. Any insight as to why?

I wasn't around back then (I was a wee one at that point). I guess the idea was good, but the AOL/TW merger is where things really started to go downhill, based on what I've heard from others who have been here since The Beginning.

I recently got my dad to cancel his $18 a month AOL subscription that he's had for ten years. He thought that would get rid of his email. Oh, by the way, he now uses gmail and Firefox. "I can't believe I fucking paid for something I can get for free." Best day of my life.

Without giving away anything identifiable, what do you do for AOL?

It used to be near-impossible to cancel your paid membership, and that was by design. Thankfully, that's changed.

I am in this kind of weird sort of product management and production role right now. But that's not my job title. I enjoy it though, just had a bigger/better opportunity come along externally.

What are the benefits (if any) of a paid membership?

You're asking the wrong person... I don't work in services.

Presumably, the #1 benefit is that you help fund my annual bonus.

Do you know anything about TUAW? They used to be a great apple blog, but they can't compete with larger sites on the AOL totem pole such as Engadget. Now, it is mostly product and app reviews with some weak commentary in between. In their welcome to 2014 post, they asked people to use their website for ad revenue rather than through feeds. I don't think they will be around much longer.

How would you describe the relationship between websites such as TUAW and AOL?

Thanks!

So I used to be a regular reader of TUAW, many years ago. I've stopped reading, mainly due to a lack of time but also because I found other sites with more interesting content.

I know TUAW is a Weblogs, Inc. property (as was Engadget and Joystiq, etc) and clearly there is value in the brand, so it's being kept around for now. But, I think at some point it may make more sense to consolidate efforts and perhaps move the Apple commentary to Engadget or elsewhere. That's just heresy though, I have not heard anything official to support that.

How do ya'll make money? I can't imagine anyone giving ya'll a dollar, but then again, I am only one market segment. Also, why are you working there?

There are a ton of different revenue streams for the company. Other companies use an advertising platform that we developed. We have ads on editorial pages (if you read Engadget, Autoblog, Huffington Post, Moviefone or countless others, you're helping our bottom line; thanks!) and we have partnerships with other companies where we get paid for every page view or unique visitor.

And yes, we do still have dial-up customers that pay monthly. There are more places than you'd think where dial-up is the only option for internets.

I work here because I found an internship when I was still in college, my boss liked me and hired me full-time, and then I moved around internally a bit. I've done a lot that's boosted my career and resume, which is all you care about when you're just breaking into the working world.

Are there any really outdated parts of AOL that can still be accessed through the client software, a la the Space Jam website?

Hrmm. I'll have to think on that and get back to you. Some parts of our sites still run on really old content management tools, that's for sure. But the CMS's are not user-facing, so that's not a great answer.

I love your free Frisbee's you guys used to give out back in they day, where might i acquire some for myself again?

No idea. Ebay? All of our leftovers internally were crushed up and mixed in with concrete to make our conference room tables.

Why they no think of poor kids from Africa need tons of fun in the sun? Either way, do you think you could show us some photos of the awesome concrete Frisbee genocide tables you speak of?

Here's one angle and another

Sure, let me see if any of the conference rooms where the tables are located are open right now. Brb taking a walk.

What is your AIM away message?

Usually something like "Lunch" or "Meeting."

I gave up on inspirational quotes and song lyrics when I transferred from intern to full-time.

WHat do you do at AOL? I imagine that you are the only person there and you just spend all day on Reddit. How correct am I to assume that?

It's just me and the cleaning lady, yep.

No, but f'real, we have somewhere between 5k and 6k employees worldwide. My office used to be more full, but operations have shifted locations (current HQ for the past few years has been in NYC). Regardless, we probably have 500-800 people where I am.

Oh, and I do productish/productionish stuff.

What do you think is the reason for why AOL is struggling to keep up?

Answered here.

Do you have a picture of these conference room tables?

Here

What company are you headed to?

It's a company that does B2B instead of B2C in order to drive revenue. That's all I'm gonna share for now.

Alibaba?

Nope.

[deleted]

Answered here.

I know you mentioned the feed-driven local news project which got steamrolled by Patch but could you tell us about other products/projects/initiatives which never saw the light of day? Does AOL conduct exploratory research of any kind? Iirc, AOLServer was pretty darn innovative when it came out but seems rather low-tech nowadays.

Thanks!

That's just one story I've heard. There have been a lot of projects that could have been much better, had they not been nitpicked/over-developed to death, thus delaying their launch by a year or more and losing partnerships in the process.

AOL does run Fishbowl Labs, a kind of "landing zone" for startups that need some office space. While they claim to not directly invest in the startups that are part of Fishbowl, they do say "it's possible that AOL Ventures could independently invest in a Fishbowl Labs company. "

How did you get the job? Like, what led up to you working with AOL?

Saw an internship opening on my college's internship/career website, applied, didn't get that one but was put in for a different internship that was "a better fit." Did a phone interview wearing nothing but a towel because nobody told me I had a phone interview, nailed it, got the internship. Was asked to stay on full time, and just kinda went from there.

I have an aim screen name for many years and recently it won't allow me to access the client...I can sign in, but no client or web service... I know you have cool tools to check things, possible to check for a fellow redditor?

Well, did you stop paying for service? I don't know if the client requires a paid membership or not anymore, but unfortunately I'm also not working in that department so I don't have any contacts to ask. Sorry!

Hello fellow AOL-er (and by the looks of it, in the same office).

I too did an AMA a bit ago, for those reading this one there might be more answers thisaway.

waves

I've been working with some sales people lately, wonder if I've emailed you.

what do you do?

This.

Why exactly does AOL own www.love.com?

Looks like an old site that we used to run, then closed down. When a site with clout gets shut down, the content worth keeping will get merged to another site, and the domain name will typically be redirected to still drive traffic to another property that we own.

What kind of job did you have at AOL?

Did you work at the location that had the teenage intern squatting there for months?

Sort of a productish/productionish gig. But not with that sort of job title.

And no, I believe that guy was in the LA office. Wrong coast.

I use AOL for my spam email. Over 3000 emails built up now.

Cool. I use Yahoo for the same purpose.

I still have an AOL account that I actively use because it's been the most consistent way for anyone to contact me since the mid-90s -- and once it transitioned to a free service, there was even less reason to give it up. That said, it's amazing how antiquated it's remained in the face of competition. Are you going to keep your AOL account once you depart the company?

My personal email all runs through Gmail. I have a personal AOL screen name that I had pre-employment and I do plan to keep that one. My work account has only been used for internal IM'ing, so no, I'll let it go. People know where to find me.

What do you use as an email client in the office? Is it AOL, and if so, how annoying is it to have that guy say "You got mail" every time a message comes?

We use Outlook, our email is all on an Exchange server. The most annoying noise lately has been everyone's damn company iPhones left to "make noise" mode. I hear the Apple "new mail" chime almost constantly.

Oh, and someone in my old building used to leave their speakers turned ALL the way up, and they still had the "new IM" chime enabled in AIM. The same chime from 1994. That one was infuriating.

Do you guys still use the same "You've got mail" voice? Is that a computer or an actual person?

I believe that sound is still used on the AOL Mail web client, yes. It's an actual person who recorded that phrase and others, way back when the client was the new hotness. Don't remember his name though.

Elwood Edwards. Source -- worked at AOL 1997-2002 at the time a deal was cut with this guy to keep using his voice. Tried to hold up the company for a big payout and got a relatively small one time payment instead.

There ya go, I knew I had read about him before.

Why did they get rid of Virtual Places? That was my favorite feature back in like... 1995. I still remember one of my favorite audio triggers.

"Nice beaver."

"Thanks! I just had it stuffed."

It was awesome for 14 year old me.

And slingo. I was addicted to that.

You know... I don't remember Virtual Places or Slingo. As a kid, my friends had AOL but my parents never did. We had Bell Atlantic dial-up with Netscape Navigator as a browser.

Do you think the company will last for a while? if so how successful do you think they would be?

Depends on how TA and the other higher-ups choose to run things and prioritize. I think they're at an important point right now and need to make some hard decisions that will determine the future of things.

Do you still have that cringey but now nostalgia filles dial-up sound? Ever thought about incorporating that in a sarcastic way for a new as campaign? You would have my vote.

I mean, a recording of how a modem sounds could be found or made. I'd love to see them run a TV spot about how "we're not your parents' AOL" but... I doubt they would.

How do you still get PAID?

On the 15th and 31st by direct deposit.

That got me. Nice, and thanks for the AMA.

But really, what sort of projects do you guys have that get profits?

We do this sort of stuff.

What are some perks of your job? Get any free stuff....and can i have some (i doubt it will work, but worth a shot.)

The healthcare and other benefits are really great. I can work from home if need be. Our office has a cafeteria that's run by Aramark (food's actually pretty good) and the cost is subsidized, so I can eat lunch for less than $5, easily. Free coffee/tea/soda/etc. Free gym and gym classes. Happy hours. Mandatory volunteer day to give back to the community each year (publicly known as Monster Help Day).

And honestly, lots of great connections. Ex-AOLers are everywhere, and a lot of them are fantastic people to know.

PM me your address and I'll send you an AOL mouse pad.

What is staff morale like in general? It must be hard to work for a company that most of the world considers to be on the way out, if they are thought of as all.

Also, does AOL have any sort of international focus at all?

Morale seems to depend on the department in which you work. Everywhere I've worked has been very positive.

I think the amount of positivity also depends on how long you've been around. People who've been here longer seem to have a more realistic view of timelines for projects (or feasibility that said project will even be seen to completion). There isn't a shortage of enthusiasm, though.

Your dial rottery noise made me want to kill my self after 2000 minutes

...thanks? Just so you're aware, it's a noise that all modems make, not AOL...

Thanks for doing this AMA! I just logged into my AOL account that I had over a decade ago. I had 8000+ e-mails. My "sent" folder was empty, which was sad, but I had some saved mail that induced some serious nostalgia.

Gah, I shudder to think of how many unread emails I have in my old Yahoo account (which, for the past 8 years or so, has been spam-only).

Hooray, nostalgia!