Opportunities Lost: AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)

• Posted on 21st November 2011
• in Opportunities Lost
• by BrentJacobs

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Back in the day, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) was THE way to communicate on the internet.  Every young person used it, whether they were in junior high, high school, or college, and they’d be on it for hours.  This is where the original emoticons were created.  Abbreviations like “brb” (be right back), “ttyl” (talk to you later), “gtg” (got to go), “lol” (laughing out loud), and “omg” (oh my God) were born here.  Screen names were sacred (the sharing of which meant you were friends) and the blocking of someone else meant that you weren’t friends anymore.  Buddy lists were a list of all your friends and people that you wanted to keep tabs on.  The profile page allowed you to display information about yourself and even post links.  The “Away Message” allowed you to broadcast your status.  Sound anything like an early social network?  Facebook maybe?

AOL had the network, the communication platform, and the biggest name in internet access.  They were such an established part of our culture that families would get a second line just so that the young users could constantly be online after dialing in.  Even after broadband internet became more affordable and widespread, they were still the dominant force for communication and people still had paid-subscriptions to AOL even though they could get onto the internet directly.  So why did AIM become irrelevant and F

Tags: AIM, AOL, Facebook, Opportunities Lost