{"id":1875,"date":"2010-06-01T13:21:02","date_gmt":"2010-06-01T20:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bspcn.com\/?p=1875"},"modified":"2010-06-01T13:21:02","modified_gmt":"2010-06-01T20:21:02","slug":"25-years-of-youve-got-fail-18-of-aols-biggest-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/2010\/06\/01\/25-years-of-youve-got-fail-18-of-aols-biggest-mistakes\/","title":{"rendered":"25 Years of “You’ve Got Fail”: 18 of AOL’s Biggest Mistakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Timothy James Duffy<\/a><\/p>\n

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This week AOL celebrates the company\u2019s 25 year anniversary. Throughout the internet service provider turned online advertising company\u2019s history, they\u2019ve been the force behind some of the most epic web-related fails known to man.<\/p>\n

While it would be impossible to document the company\u2019s endless list of shortcomings, there are some that distinguish themselves from the pack.<\/p>\n

Here are 18 of the AOL\u2019s biggest fails throughout the years, in no particular order.<\/p>\n

1. Customer Service Fail<\/h4>\n

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In June of 2006, Vincent Ferrari called AOL in an attempt to cancel his account. After waiting 15 minutes to speak with a representative, Vincent soon found out that AOL wasn\u2019t going to let him go so easily. Following much debate, AOL finally agreed to cancel his account, but made sure to let him know that they were only trying to keep him as a customer for his \u201cown good.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Digg Spam Fail<\/h4>\n

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AOL was called out for the sketchy measures they took to make the front page of Digg.com<\/a> in August of 2006. The company had pushed their Weblogs<\/a> stories to the front page by encouraging employees to submit and Digg their own, and fellow staff members\u2019 stories.<\/p>\n

3. Rebranding Fail<\/h4>\n

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AOL officially rebranded their company as \u201cAol.\u201d in November of 2009. The new Aol. kicked off their launch with several new logos which were clearly created in five minutes using Photoshop. Just what AOL needed to revitalize their dying brand.<\/p>\n

4. Bebo Fail<\/h4>\n

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Following an $850 million acquisition in 2008, AOL announced this year that they would either be selling, or shutting down Bebo<\/a>. Recently, current CEO Tim Armstrong went on record stating<\/a> the deal \u201creally fell apart.\u201d I\u2019d say so.<\/p>\n

5. Search Data Fail<\/h4>\n

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In August of 2006, AOL Research leaked a file<\/a> containing 25 million keyword searches conducted by over 650,000 users on one of its websites. Though the data was intended for \u201cresearch,\u201d AOL users weren\u2019t thrilled about the public release of potentially sensitive information. AOL pulled the file three days later.<\/p>\n

6. Disk Solicitation Fail<\/h4>\n

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Up until 2006, AOL was known for the massive distribution of their software installation disks. As the disks went largely unused, the company came under fire for their blatant disregard of the negative environmental impact that they had. In August of 2006, AOL decided to \u201cgo green\u201d and halt the production of their disks.<\/p>\n

7. Yahoo Cloning Fail<\/h4>\n

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In April of 2007, AOL redesigned their site and encouraged visitors to \u201cexperience the new AOL.com<\/a>.\u201d Their new face, however, looked strangely familiar to some. Why? AOL\u2019s new look was a complete rip-off of Yahoo.com<\/a>. Apparently, AOL was reading Tony Robbins at the time \u2014 \u201cIf you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you\u2019ll achieve the same results.\u201d Unfortunately for AOL, it didn\u2019t exactly play out like that.<\/p>\n

8. Usenet Fail<\/h4>\n

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In 1993, AOL gave their customers access to Usenet<\/a> \u2026limited access, that is. It soon came to light that AOL neglected to list one specific newsgroup in \u201cstandard view.\u201d Which group, you ask? None other than alt.aol-sucks.The group, however, was listed in the \u201calternate view\u201d with the altered description \u201cflames and complaints about America Online\u201d accompanying it.<\/p>\n

9. Terms of Service Fail<\/h4>\n

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In the early years of AOL\u2019s popularity, the company came under fire<\/a> for its strict and elaborate terms of service. Users of the service were required to agree to the terms listed, which gave them grounds to censor user-generated content \u2013 oh, and they did. <\/em><\/p>\n

Here are just a few of AOL\u2019s ridiculous terms of service violations:<\/p>\n