Originally posted by CloudNine
People have a variety of qualms with AOL, directly and indirectly. The 'fake internet' paradigm is one given to AOL because it is sometimes seen as a large corporation's version of the world wide web, open to censorship, solicitation, with a candy-coating that, uhh, melts in your mouth but not in your hand?
Actually ....
that's not entirely accurate. the general use of the term 'fake internet' or 'internet lite' with regard to AOL is NOT just the commercial (read: corporate) bullcrap that goes with it. [While I agree that AOL is Microsoft version 2 (and, believe me, AOL Time Warner has its own antitrust issues) "true" internet companies like Earthlink (which is the #2 ISP) still have the favor of corporate commercialism -- because they HAVE to! They're in the business to make money and there's nothing inherently wrong with that; the problem is in how FAR you take that corporate profit over customer satisfaction attitude that matters.]
No, the real reason (or at least the ORIGIN) for such comments comes from real, technical data:
AOL uses proxy servers which route all IP traffic through it's routers to the AOL client -- so AOL can, I suppose, monitor IP traffic, gain useful statistical information (read: commercial gain), block undesirable sites (kiddy porn and illegal sites), etc. While some of this is good some of it is bad. Statistically, while this may have changed recently, it is still my understanding that because of the use of proxy servers (a similar reason as to why Apple Airport Base Station 1.0 did NOT work with AOL), access to AOL proxied web-pages is SLOWER than direct access from a true browser directly to the Internet. AOL acts as a gateway to the internet rather than as part of the internet itself. It is it's own universe with its own services, features, and culture -- and it imposes the culture on the user whether they want it or not. For example instant messaging and chatting with AOL, while good features, must be done THEIR way -- but if you use a third party service (IRC, etc.) you have MANY(!) more features.
Anyway, original AOL was like Earthlink, they were Macintosh SUPPORTERS. Now AOL is not!